Battle in the North. Welcome to TORYUKEN 4: Stronghold!
Hi, my name is Force of Nature, and this is my TORYUKEN 4 story. It started about 2 months ago when it was annouced that TorontoTopTiers' (TTT) TORYUKEN 4: Stronghold would be taking place at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, a fairly large-sized city to the west of Toronto, the heart of Ontario and its capital. This was big, BIG news to me! The International Centre is a large convention centre near Toronto's Pearson International Airport that was serving as the stage for a major eSports event called Enthusiastic Gaming Live (EGL). Games like Starcraft, CS:GO, DoTA, speedrunners and Smash 4 & Melee were being featured alongside TTT's own lineup of games including USF4, UMvC3, MKX, GG:Xrd, TTT2, KI, KOF13, BB:CP:EX, P4AU, I:GAU, VF5:FS, and of course DOA5:LR. I was really fricking pumped by this news that I shared the event with Tom Lee on his FB page and convinced him and TN to promote the event (which they did on Twitter!). Many of the wonderful dwellers of FSD may have noticed that I've been seriously hyped for this event pretty much all year so far!
Fast-forward to around a bit past noon Saturday, where I'm scrambling to get all my gear together to embark on the excursion to Mississauga and the International Centre. There would be one pit stop on the way; picking up NanhouDrops, a goofy black dude and a very strong Brad Wong player, to the event. When we got to the venue, we were wondering where everyone had went. Then it occurred to me that I still got my luggage with me to drop off to the Comfort Inn that VF & DOA player, MadeMan, graciously booked for us. So, we darted over to the hotel that was a few minutes from the venue and then made preparations to drop off our shit. In typical road trip fashion, I didn't know the hell what room the guys were staying in so we had to phone MadeMan to give the hotel the ok to let us in the room. With our luck, the desk gave us a cardkey, so we could dump our load in the hotel room. The room looked surprisingly clean for a room occupied by a bunch of dirty dudes the night before (MadeMan and a couple other guys booked in on the Friday night and stayed up to, like, 4AM playing games).
After we dropped all our crap, I laid down my 27" gaming monitor, and in a very predictable scene, I noticed that I had forgot the AC cable to the monitor at home when I removed it from its table. "Aw, you have got to be shitting me..." I said out loud, and then said to NanhouDrops that I'm going to quickly google any nearby TV or electronics stores and buy a cheap-ass AC cable. "'The Source', about 5 minutes away". Yeah that looked good to us, and then made our way back to the car and then to the ghetto-looking electronics shop nearby. I asked the dude behind the counter if he had any cables for computer monitors, and he said "yeah we do, but it's gunna cost ya". "Really", I thought to myself. "Cable doesn't look like it's worth more than 5 bucks". "It'll cost ya... 4 bucks". NanhouDrops and I both LOL'ed as I gladly handed over the 4 bucks plus tax (13% tax *sighs*), then hussled back to the hotel to try out the cable. It worked like charm! The time was now 4:25PM, and it was time to get our asses to the venue!
Naturally when we got there, we looked lost because, low and behold, we went through the wrong entrance. "Umm... do you know where the video game eSports stuff is taking place?" I said to the very nice Canadian security guard who directed us to the right area that was, of course, located at the furthest point from where we were. Yeah, I think you're starting to get the idea of how this trip went by now LOL. Anyway, once we got in the venue we were treated to one epic looking convention. Beautiful game booths and displays were featured all over the place in this massive room! Shit, I got so excited that I bought a TORYUKEN 4 T-shirt LOL! NanhouDrops and I wandered over to the area where the fighting games were being featured and then parked our asses around where our friends were playing some VF5:FS. It was such a poverty-looking setup but it was what it was haha! Once night fell upon this hectic Saturday, we got a glimpse of a small concert featuring a band playing various video game music with a Metal twist! Yeah, I rocked out a little bit before going out with the guys to a nearby Hooters for some much anticipated supper! (perfect place for DOA players, amrite?)
Back at the hotel, we were pretty much 3D central! DOA5LR on my PS4, VF5:FS, TTT2 and even a little SCV (<3 Nightmare) got played! Holy shit, we stayed up too late. NanhouDrops and I played DOA5LR until like, after 5AM, and then he wanted to face my Jacky in VF5:FS against his Eileen. Yeah, it was a little one-sided lol, though I had to cut off the session at about 7AM. NanhouDrops apparently was still grinding away at that game until about 9AM! Dude is friggin' crazy! At about 10:30AM we had to get up and get our shit together and booked out of the hotel by 11:30AM. My ass didn't want to get up and just lied on the bed until about 10 minutes to 11. For the math enthusiasts out there, we didn't exactly get much sleep. Hell, NanhouDrops, only got about 1 hour of sleep! Note to everyone reading this: DON'T DO WHAT WE DID THE NIGHT BEFORE A TOURNAMENT, GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP! So, we rounded our gear together and then proceeded to the venue for the main day of this tournament weekend.
Technically DOA5:LR and VF5:FS were to take place only on the Sunday with a time slot of 2-6PM, though as you could guess, the tournaments didn't quite remain within that time frame. To much of our chagrin, a string of troublesome power surges led to near-complete power failures within the venue! I didn't know exactly what time they happened at but, I knew it was at least about 4 to 5PM around the time that they occurred. Unfortunately TTT2 was the game hogging the stream, and I must say that that shit takes forever to finish! *Sighs*, hopefully Tekken 7 can quicken things for the tournament scene when it arrives next year. Despite these perils, the show must go on, and all tournaments must decide a winner. Then some bad news was relayed to us. "DOA & VF will only be showing Top 3 instead of Top 4" said the TO's. That was a little disheartening to hear, but was no biggie. But later on, after the second power surge had taken its toll on the event schedule, we were hit with arguably the most disappointing news of the event. "Only VF Top 3 will be featured on stream, since they were directly sponsored by SEGA, and we have to get out of here by 8 O'Clock!" The shit hit the fan for me at least, especially after I got Tom Lee behind the event and TN promoted TORYUKEN 4 on their twitter page. How the hell can you shaft one of the featured games at a major tournament? It's complete bullshit, but it is what it is. Can't say that DOA players aren't accustomed to this sort of shady treatment.
As for the tournament, I'm gunna start this story from the winner's bracket in a match between NanhouDrops, and Yurlungur, a player proficient with numerous female characters. From the glimpses that I could catch of the match, they were pretty much going back and forth with Yurlungur's Leifang holding her own against NanhouDrops' Brad Wong. The score was 2-2, and Yurlungur decided that it was time to pull out Christie. As you can imagine, this didn't please NanhouDrops, who's Brad Wong struggled in this final set before finally falling, thus sending him to the loser's bracket. He was so dejected from the match that, in his loser's bracket match against up-and-comer, og23, he decided to go with his sub Pai Chan, whom eventually fell to og23's solid Lisa play, landing NanhouDrops into fifth place. Around this time, I was excited to see og23 in the top 4, since I partially trained his Lisa, but was also dejected from learning that only "Top 3 would be streamed" (before later on learning that we wouldn't get streamed at all!
). In the Loser's Semifinals, og23 went up against TTT's own Teevo, a veteran of 3D fighters and an arcade "OG" in his own right. I unfortunately didn't get to see the match, but learned that og23 wasn't able to topple Teevo and his very dangerous Bass, and would have to settle for 4th place. A very respectable standing for someone of his skill level.
Next up was the Winner's finals between myself and Yurlungur. I'll just lay this out there, Yurlungur doesn't like Ayane, in fact he hates her guts! To no surprise, this match wasn't too pleasant for him. He started it out with his main girl, Helena, whom didn't provide much resistance to my Ayane and was bested rather easily. In response, Yurlungur, quickly switched to his new pocket Leifang, to have a quote-unquote "4P battle". I.e. Ayane's 4P vs. Leifang's 3P+K. I'll say straight up that the next two sets got quite ridiculous. After almost any move that got tossed out by Leifang, Yurlungur would make her follow-up with 3P+K. At first he caught me a couple times as I was witnessing just how much shit that move could crush, though after a short while, it came down to me simply blocking 3P+K, then 6PP'ing Leifang in the back for a guaranteed launch combo. The matches didn't last much longer and Yurlungur lost the Winner's Finals set 3-0.
After that match was Loser's Finals between Yurlungur and Teevo. Unfortunately I only caught glimpses of the match but it was surprisingly back and forth. First Yurlungur got up 2-0, and then Teevo made some very clutch reads and was able to tie the set up 2-2! Seriously, this shit should have been on stream. The match was HYPE! From what I could see, Yurlungur was running Christie, though not once did it look like Teevo's Bass was intimidated or being bullied around. That's right, as long as you don't fear Christie she can be defeated! Despite that, Teevo eventually fell in the last set making it 3-2, knocking Teevo into 3rd place, and moving Yurlungur to Grand Finals.
Alright guys, here it is, the DOA5LR offstream Grand Finals at TORYUKEN 4: Stronghold! This battle took place between myself, Force of Nature, and Yurlungur. I knew right away that Yurlungur wasn't messing around when he chose Christie as his warrior against my Ayane. I outfitted Ayane in her gorgeous Casual Steampunk outfit with her hair in a ponytail and donning her red-frame glasses. Yurlungur had Christie wear her police officer costume with her hair in a bobcut and decked out in her aviator shades. The first battleground was the always exciting Hot Zone. Now that we're ready for business, I knew that I had to play this match smart. Both characters are highly unsafe and can be punished quite regularly for mistakes. As the first set commenced, I carefully paid attention to what Christie was doing and held almost every string she tossed out. I pretty much didn't let any string go beyond about 3 hits. I knew that if I let Christie get away with any free lift stuns, it would be curtains for Ayane. Midway in the match, I got Ayane positioned with her back to a wall and Christie in front. I hit her with Ayane's 64T reset throw and and swapped positions to set her up for a guaranteed 236K into the barrel for the "RPG" dangerzone! Unlucky for me, the 236K hit just missed the dangerzone and I was awarded with an angled wall hit instead *Cue fog horn sound*. However, overall, it didn't matter too much since, Yurlungur wasn't able to get anything going in this set, and my Ayane was able to win three straight rounds for a quick 1-0.
Without batting an eyelash, we went "FIGHT AGAIN" and were then transported to the bottom level of the equally dangerous Scramble stage. This set played out similarly to the first set, though we had slightly more room to work with. I made sure to stuff any of Christie's attempts at offense and held whenever I saw a string being used instead of a free cancel. Along with that, a large factor working in my favour was consistent punishment of any of Christie's plethora of unsafe moves. The first two rounds went to Ayane's favour with a combination of strong punishment and devastating wall damage. The third round didn't go as smoothly as Christie got in some much needed offense and quickly drained my health bar to a sliver. I was able to bounce back a bit with a tight CB setup and a subsequent powerblow into the "burning wall", though Christie made a clutch tech roll and appropriately punished my whiff. I didn't let that phase me, and I promptly took the next round convincingly with a throw punish against Christie's JAK~PK2P, putting me up 2-0 against Yurlungur, whom is battling from the Loser's bracket. I was one set away from being the TORYUKEN 4 champion.
But then Yurlungur threw a major curveball at me, and decided to ditch Christie, for arguably his most devious pocket character, Alpha-152. "You have got to be fucking kidding me", I said to myself, and "Really dude, REALLY?" is what I said to Yurlungur, whom didn't change his expression. Knowing that this was essentially a "YOLO" on Yurlungur's part, I decked Ayane out in my signature outfit for her, her Infiltrator costume, with the red-frame glasses and ponytail. Yurlungur selected blue, buck-naked Alpha with the ponytail hairstyle. Our third set would take place at the top of the "STREET" stage. Yurlungur was not messing around. He started the first round fists a-blazing and quickly backed me into a corner where he continued to pressure Ayane. It worked out beautifully for him and then he sealed the first round with a well-placed RUSH offensive hold. I'll say right now that I hate that OH with a passion, and it's scary how effective Yurlungur can be with it. Combine that with his BURST ability and I didn't have a very fun matchup on my hands. I opened up the next round with an Expert Mid P Hold and quickly set up a 110+ damage combo sending Alpha into the fenced corner of this rooftop battleground. As the match went on, it became very noticeable that Yurlungur was very comfortable fighting Ayane with Alpha and was able to consistently shut down my attempts at offense very regularly. He knew what ranges to stay at to remain at advantage and what seemed like a joke pick, suddenly became a large threat to my chances of success. Also, Alpha's BT7K can go to hell.
The score is now 2-1 and we are transported to the Sakura stage where I am treated to more hell with Yurlungur's Alpha. Never have I found a character to fight as infuriating as Alpha. As soon she stuns you, it's like waiting for a bus to run into your character. The result is never pretty. I was fortunate to take the first round thanks to a couple clutch Expert Mid P holds, though I knew all it'd take is one CB, or BURST to run Ayane into the ground. Yurlungur was on point in the next round and pretty much shut down my attempts to get offense going almost achieving a GREAT. The third round was a bit more back and forth and I even got opportunities to try out some "Alpha-only" combos, but it wasn't quite enough and Yurlungur edged out the round with a devious RUSH barely catching Ayane in the back. The next round was a close one but unfortunately ended with more ingenious uses of RUSH, running the score up to 2-2.
Yurlungur and I were now tied, and he was heavily threatening to reset the bracket. Yurlungur continued to remain on point with his offense and took the first two rounds convincingly with near GREATs. He was now one round away from resetting the bracket and I was getting tired of his Alpha shit. In round three I just YOLO'ed Alpha and backed her jello ass into the corner where I repeatedly bashed her jello head into the wall. Now Yurlungur got a taste of his own medicine as I pressured and YOLO'ed him. I threw everything but the kitchen sink at the jello queen and convincingly tied this set at two rounds a piece. It was do or die time for both of us. Either Yurlungur resets me, or I knock him out of the tournament. The final round of this set was easily the most intense match we've had so far. Both of us were going hard at each other trying to find a hole in the opponent's defense to get our offense started. Yurlungur hit two RUSH's in this round and drained Ayane's health down to a little more than a sliver. But then courtesy of a low wake-up kick, I quickly got in a quick burst of offense deep-stunning Alpha and was literally ONE setup away from taking the tournament. Unfortunately I made a very costly miscalculation and was treated to Alpha's parry, and subsequent combo closing out the set 3-2 in Yurlungur's favour. He just won three straight sets with Alpha against my Ayane. I was devastated at that point. One of the last characters I expected to face just decimated me. I just experienced one of the worst feelings that a player in Grand Finals can feel; being reset on.
Yurlungur extended his right hand and said "GG's". My reply though was "Dude, we ain't done yet! I'm in Winner's, you just reset me!" And off to the character select screen we went. If Yurlungur was gunna stick with Alpha-152, I needed to change my gameplan and fast, so I opted for my sub-main Christie. When Yurlungur saw that, his face lit up with fear and quickly darted off of Alpha. I was like "Huh, you just won don't you have to stay on Alpha?". He told me that, "No, it's a new set so I can change". I looked at one of the TO's TTT's Teevo, and he concurred that Yurlungur can change, because he clearly wants no part of the Christie/Alpha-152 match-up. He opted to go with his main Helena instead. The classic Christie vs. Helena match-up! Always a favourite in the West LOL. Christie was outfitted in her daring pop idol outfit with her bobcut and aviators and Helena was donning her gorgeous greek dress and her new stunning braid added to Last Round. Our first set of the reset would take place on the ever-relaxing Zack Island. Yurlungur immediately went on the offensive at R1F and tried to get Helena's reset pressure going. Unfortunately for him, my defense with Christie was strong and my on-point punishment ensured that I came out on top in the first round. The second round was punctuated by a couple strong CB combos quickly reducing Helena's health bar to ashes. The third round mirrored the first a bit, with Christie shutting down Helena's offense with repeated Mid P holds at every turn. With a sliver of health left for Helena, Yurlungur went "Fuck it", and did a run-up-grab with her 5T. Christie's life lead proved too much to topple and Helena fell to a 66K hard read, low-crush from Christie against Helena's own 66K low kick.
The score is now 1-0 FoN, and a trip to the character select screen was in order. Yurlungur went with Leifang, an understandable choice, and outfitted her in her beautiful black dress with stockings, red-frame glasses and her new lovely braid hairstyle. Set two took place in the "COMING SOON" circus show. R1F opened up with a 7K from Christie knocking Leifang flat on her ass. "Heheh, did you expect a punch?" I thought to myself and continued to remind Yurlungur to respect my 7K! The surprise element from the 7K's through off Yurlungur's game completely, and Leifang quickly found herself backed into a corner being treated to brutal wall combos and 66T resets. Fun stuff! First round goes to Christie with a GREAT. Yurlungur got his composure back and effectively shut down my offense in the second round, taking it convincingly. The next round was a back & forth one with a good balance of offense and defense from both characters. However, some costly 3P+K misuses and whiffs cost Yurlungur this round as I made sure to punish each mistake appropriately. Next round was a tight one with Leifang hitting a half-life combo fairly early courtesy of a well-placed CH. Both players punished each other's mistakes and whittled each other's health down to about a sliver, but Yurlungur opted to go for a low wake-up kick right at the end, that I quickly reacted to and punished accordingly. "NOPE! THERE WILL BE NO WAKE UP KICKS DUDE!" I stated after punishing the WUK LOL.
The score is 2-0 of the reset bracket and Yurlungur is now down to one character select left, which he naturally made use of. Knowing that he was now backed into a tight corner, and was quickly running out of options, Yurlungur decided to make the choice that everyone was fearing and, that I had hoped wouldn't come down to. He chose Christie as his final swan song. Yes, the final set of DOA5:LR at TORYUKEN 4 would be decided in a Christie mirror. I was just shaking my head at this point, but I knew what had to be done. The battleground for the third set would take place on the ground floor of the "CRIMSON" stage, one of the new playgrounds introduced in Last Round. Yurlungur outfitted his Christie in her police outfit from earlier with the bobcut and shades, and I kept mine in the same outfit that I have been using up until this point. At R1F I wasn't screwing around, and immediately took the fight to Yurlungur with a furious PPPP2P string and continued to try and mount pressure that Yurlungur did respond to properly and fought back. My holds were on point, along with my slow escaping, effectively shutting down his attempts at offense and closed out the round with a stun mix-up off of 4K2KP. Yurlungur came out much more aggressive in the next round and made use of 4T for some much needed pressure that quickly drained my health bar. He also made some good escapes from my setups and caught me with a delay off of one of Christie's Mid K's for a small juggle to take the round. I was like "Ok then", then promptly opened the next round with 6PP for a quick CH stun gaining momentum quickly. It didn't last too long and Yurlungur continued to try and set up 4T pressure. I fortunately escaped his pressure and mounted my own 4T resets! This round got really tight, I mean, like down to the frickin' wire, but a costly missed punishment opportunity and a poorly conceived throw attempt netted me the third round. In round 4 I resumed my assault and opened up with PK, however Yurlungur aggressively fought back and scored a small juggle resulting in a wall slam for my Christie. Despite my successful attempts to stuff a lot of Yurlungur's poorly placed moves, he still managed to net enough damage to secure the round with a Mid k hold at the end.
Two rounds apiece, do or die time for Yurlungur! He either makes something happen now or will be eliminated from the tournament. Maintaining my strategy, I opened up the final round with more aggression and continued to take the fight to Yurlungur attempting to seal his fate. I could see he was a bit nervous at this point because he was starting to free cancel and throw a bit more along with some generous doses of 6PPPP. Like round 3, this round was also very tight, with Yurlungur setting up a hi-counter 4T near the end, then proceeding to make a desperate attempt to save his tournament life by chucking out 6PPPP against my block, which I waited out and punished with 6T, making the reset bracket score 3-0 and securing the victory! Force of Nature, your TORYUKEN 4: Stronghold Dead or Alive 5: Last Round champion!
I was both estatic and disheartened as the final match of DOA5LR closed out offstream at approximately 7:55 PM Sunday night. I was estatic because I won my second major, but severely bummed that the intense matches didn't get streamed. Not even the Grand Finals at least! But on the bright side I was just happy to be able to spend this exciting weekend with friends that share the same love of 3D fighters and DOA that I do. To close out our tournament experience, many of the players went to a nearby Zet's restaurant to eat some much needed food, because quite a bit of players were borderline starving all day along with running on an insufficient amount of sleep (remember to get a good night's rest kiddies!). After the big meal, we gathered our things and parted ways, with me driving a very exhausted NanhouDrops back home.
I'm Force of Nature and this is my DOA5:LR story. I look forward to hearing yours in the future!
I'm the one around the middle-left wearing the stripped shirt and dark jeans making a douchey pose and looking at the Heavens going: "WHY? Why no stream time?"
TORYUKEN 4: Stronghold DOA5:LR Top 4:
1st Force of Nature
2nd Yurlungur
3rd TTT Teevo
4th og23
TLR TORYUKEN was amazing and I can't wait for the next one! I also hope to see you there!
Hi, my name is Force of Nature, and this is my TORYUKEN 4 story. It started about 2 months ago when it was annouced that TorontoTopTiers' (TTT) TORYUKEN 4: Stronghold would be taking place at the International Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, a fairly large-sized city to the west of Toronto, the heart of Ontario and its capital. This was big, BIG news to me! The International Centre is a large convention centre near Toronto's Pearson International Airport that was serving as the stage for a major eSports event called Enthusiastic Gaming Live (EGL). Games like Starcraft, CS:GO, DoTA, speedrunners and Smash 4 & Melee were being featured alongside TTT's own lineup of games including USF4, UMvC3, MKX, GG:Xrd, TTT2, KI, KOF13, BB:CP:EX, P4AU, I:GAU, VF5:FS, and of course DOA5:LR. I was really fricking pumped by this news that I shared the event with Tom Lee on his FB page and convinced him and TN to promote the event (which they did on Twitter!). Many of the wonderful dwellers of FSD may have noticed that I've been seriously hyped for this event pretty much all year so far!
Fast-forward to around a bit past noon Saturday, where I'm scrambling to get all my gear together to embark on the excursion to Mississauga and the International Centre. There would be one pit stop on the way; picking up NanhouDrops, a goofy black dude and a very strong Brad Wong player, to the event. When we got to the venue, we were wondering where everyone had went. Then it occurred to me that I still got my luggage with me to drop off to the Comfort Inn that VF & DOA player, MadeMan, graciously booked for us. So, we darted over to the hotel that was a few minutes from the venue and then made preparations to drop off our shit. In typical road trip fashion, I didn't know the hell what room the guys were staying in so we had to phone MadeMan to give the hotel the ok to let us in the room. With our luck, the desk gave us a cardkey, so we could dump our load in the hotel room. The room looked surprisingly clean for a room occupied by a bunch of dirty dudes the night before (MadeMan and a couple other guys booked in on the Friday night and stayed up to, like, 4AM playing games).
After we dropped all our crap, I laid down my 27" gaming monitor, and in a very predictable scene, I noticed that I had forgot the AC cable to the monitor at home when I removed it from its table. "Aw, you have got to be shitting me..." I said out loud, and then said to NanhouDrops that I'm going to quickly google any nearby TV or electronics stores and buy a cheap-ass AC cable. "'The Source', about 5 minutes away". Yeah that looked good to us, and then made our way back to the car and then to the ghetto-looking electronics shop nearby. I asked the dude behind the counter if he had any cables for computer monitors, and he said "yeah we do, but it's gunna cost ya". "Really", I thought to myself. "Cable doesn't look like it's worth more than 5 bucks". "It'll cost ya... 4 bucks". NanhouDrops and I both LOL'ed as I gladly handed over the 4 bucks plus tax (13% tax *sighs*), then hussled back to the hotel to try out the cable. It worked like charm! The time was now 4:25PM, and it was time to get our asses to the venue!
Naturally when we got there, we looked lost because, low and behold, we went through the wrong entrance. "Umm... do you know where the video game eSports stuff is taking place?" I said to the very nice Canadian security guard who directed us to the right area that was, of course, located at the furthest point from where we were. Yeah, I think you're starting to get the idea of how this trip went by now LOL. Anyway, once we got in the venue we were treated to one epic looking convention. Beautiful game booths and displays were featured all over the place in this massive room! Shit, I got so excited that I bought a TORYUKEN 4 T-shirt LOL! NanhouDrops and I wandered over to the area where the fighting games were being featured and then parked our asses around where our friends were playing some VF5:FS. It was such a poverty-looking setup but it was what it was haha! Once night fell upon this hectic Saturday, we got a glimpse of a small concert featuring a band playing various video game music with a Metal twist! Yeah, I rocked out a little bit before going out with the guys to a nearby Hooters for some much anticipated supper! (perfect place for DOA players, amrite?)
Back at the hotel, we were pretty much 3D central! DOA5LR on my PS4, VF5:FS, TTT2 and even a little SCV (<3 Nightmare) got played! Holy shit, we stayed up too late. NanhouDrops and I played DOA5LR until like, after 5AM, and then he wanted to face my Jacky in VF5:FS against his Eileen. Yeah, it was a little one-sided lol, though I had to cut off the session at about 7AM. NanhouDrops apparently was still grinding away at that game until about 9AM! Dude is friggin' crazy! At about 10:30AM we had to get up and get our shit together and booked out of the hotel by 11:30AM. My ass didn't want to get up and just lied on the bed until about 10 minutes to 11. For the math enthusiasts out there, we didn't exactly get much sleep. Hell, NanhouDrops, only got about 1 hour of sleep! Note to everyone reading this: DON'T DO WHAT WE DID THE NIGHT BEFORE A TOURNAMENT, GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP! So, we rounded our gear together and then proceeded to the venue for the main day of this tournament weekend.
Technically DOA5:LR and VF5:FS were to take place only on the Sunday with a time slot of 2-6PM, though as you could guess, the tournaments didn't quite remain within that time frame. To much of our chagrin, a string of troublesome power surges led to near-complete power failures within the venue! I didn't know exactly what time they happened at but, I knew it was at least about 4 to 5PM around the time that they occurred. Unfortunately TTT2 was the game hogging the stream, and I must say that that shit takes forever to finish! *Sighs*, hopefully Tekken 7 can quicken things for the tournament scene when it arrives next year. Despite these perils, the show must go on, and all tournaments must decide a winner. Then some bad news was relayed to us. "DOA & VF will only be showing Top 3 instead of Top 4" said the TO's. That was a little disheartening to hear, but was no biggie. But later on, after the second power surge had taken its toll on the event schedule, we were hit with arguably the most disappointing news of the event. "Only VF Top 3 will be featured on stream, since they were directly sponsored by SEGA, and we have to get out of here by 8 O'Clock!" The shit hit the fan for me at least, especially after I got Tom Lee behind the event and TN promoted TORYUKEN 4 on their twitter page. How the hell can you shaft one of the featured games at a major tournament? It's complete bullshit, but it is what it is. Can't say that DOA players aren't accustomed to this sort of shady treatment.
As for the tournament, I'm gunna start this story from the winner's bracket in a match between NanhouDrops, and Yurlungur, a player proficient with numerous female characters. From the glimpses that I could catch of the match, they were pretty much going back and forth with Yurlungur's Leifang holding her own against NanhouDrops' Brad Wong. The score was 2-2, and Yurlungur decided that it was time to pull out Christie. As you can imagine, this didn't please NanhouDrops, who's Brad Wong struggled in this final set before finally falling, thus sending him to the loser's bracket. He was so dejected from the match that, in his loser's bracket match against up-and-comer, og23, he decided to go with his sub Pai Chan, whom eventually fell to og23's solid Lisa play, landing NanhouDrops into fifth place. Around this time, I was excited to see og23 in the top 4, since I partially trained his Lisa, but was also dejected from learning that only "Top 3 would be streamed" (before later on learning that we wouldn't get streamed at all!
). In the Loser's Semifinals, og23 went up against TTT's own Teevo, a veteran of 3D fighters and an arcade "OG" in his own right. I unfortunately didn't get to see the match, but learned that og23 wasn't able to topple Teevo and his very dangerous Bass, and would have to settle for 4th place. A very respectable standing for someone of his skill level.Next up was the Winner's finals between myself and Yurlungur. I'll just lay this out there, Yurlungur doesn't like Ayane, in fact he hates her guts! To no surprise, this match wasn't too pleasant for him. He started it out with his main girl, Helena, whom didn't provide much resistance to my Ayane and was bested rather easily. In response, Yurlungur, quickly switched to his new pocket Leifang, to have a quote-unquote "4P battle". I.e. Ayane's 4P vs. Leifang's 3P+K. I'll say straight up that the next two sets got quite ridiculous. After almost any move that got tossed out by Leifang, Yurlungur would make her follow-up with 3P+K. At first he caught me a couple times as I was witnessing just how much shit that move could crush, though after a short while, it came down to me simply blocking 3P+K, then 6PP'ing Leifang in the back for a guaranteed launch combo. The matches didn't last much longer and Yurlungur lost the Winner's Finals set 3-0.
After that match was Loser's Finals between Yurlungur and Teevo. Unfortunately I only caught glimpses of the match but it was surprisingly back and forth. First Yurlungur got up 2-0, and then Teevo made some very clutch reads and was able to tie the set up 2-2! Seriously, this shit should have been on stream. The match was HYPE! From what I could see, Yurlungur was running Christie, though not once did it look like Teevo's Bass was intimidated or being bullied around. That's right, as long as you don't fear Christie she can be defeated! Despite that, Teevo eventually fell in the last set making it 3-2, knocking Teevo into 3rd place, and moving Yurlungur to Grand Finals.
Alright guys, here it is, the DOA5LR offstream Grand Finals at TORYUKEN 4: Stronghold! This battle took place between myself, Force of Nature, and Yurlungur. I knew right away that Yurlungur wasn't messing around when he chose Christie as his warrior against my Ayane. I outfitted Ayane in her gorgeous Casual Steampunk outfit with her hair in a ponytail and donning her red-frame glasses. Yurlungur had Christie wear her police officer costume with her hair in a bobcut and decked out in her aviator shades. The first battleground was the always exciting Hot Zone. Now that we're ready for business, I knew that I had to play this match smart. Both characters are highly unsafe and can be punished quite regularly for mistakes. As the first set commenced, I carefully paid attention to what Christie was doing and held almost every string she tossed out. I pretty much didn't let any string go beyond about 3 hits. I knew that if I let Christie get away with any free lift stuns, it would be curtains for Ayane. Midway in the match, I got Ayane positioned with her back to a wall and Christie in front. I hit her with Ayane's 64T reset throw and and swapped positions to set her up for a guaranteed 236K into the barrel for the "RPG" dangerzone! Unlucky for me, the 236K hit just missed the dangerzone and I was awarded with an angled wall hit instead *Cue fog horn sound*
. However, overall, it didn't matter too much since, Yurlungur wasn't able to get anything going in this set, and my Ayane was able to win three straight rounds for a quick 1-0.Without batting an eyelash, we went "FIGHT AGAIN" and were then transported to the bottom level of the equally dangerous Scramble stage. This set played out similarly to the first set, though we had slightly more room to work with. I made sure to stuff any of Christie's attempts at offense and held whenever I saw a string being used instead of a free cancel. Along with that, a large factor working in my favour was consistent punishment of any of Christie's plethora of unsafe moves. The first two rounds went to Ayane's favour with a combination of strong punishment and devastating wall damage. The third round didn't go as smoothly as Christie got in some much needed offense and quickly drained my health bar to a sliver. I was able to bounce back a bit with a tight CB setup and a subsequent powerblow into the "burning wall", though Christie made a clutch tech roll and appropriately punished my whiff. I didn't let that phase me, and I promptly took the next round convincingly with a throw punish against Christie's JAK~PK2P, putting me up 2-0 against Yurlungur, whom is battling from the Loser's bracket. I was one set away from being the TORYUKEN 4 champion.
But then Yurlungur threw a major curveball at me, and decided to ditch Christie, for arguably his most devious pocket character, Alpha-152. "You have got to be fucking kidding me", I said to myself, and "Really dude, REALLY?" is what I said to Yurlungur, whom didn't change his expression. Knowing that this was essentially a "YOLO" on Yurlungur's part, I decked Ayane out in my signature outfit for her, her Infiltrator costume, with the red-frame glasses and ponytail. Yurlungur selected blue, buck-naked Alpha with the ponytail hairstyle. Our third set would take place at the top of the "STREET" stage. Yurlungur was not messing around. He started the first round fists a-blazing and quickly backed me into a corner where he continued to pressure Ayane. It worked out beautifully for him and then he sealed the first round with a well-placed RUSH offensive hold. I'll say right now that I hate that OH with a passion, and it's scary how effective Yurlungur can be with it. Combine that with his BURST ability and I didn't have a very fun matchup on my hands. I opened up the next round with an Expert Mid P Hold and quickly set up a 110+ damage combo sending Alpha into the fenced corner of this rooftop battleground. As the match went on, it became very noticeable that Yurlungur was very comfortable fighting Ayane with Alpha and was able to consistently shut down my attempts at offense very regularly. He knew what ranges to stay at to remain at advantage and what seemed like a joke pick, suddenly became a large threat to my chances of success. Also, Alpha's BT7K can go to hell.
The score is now 2-1 and we are transported to the Sakura stage where I am treated to more hell with Yurlungur's Alpha. Never have I found a character to fight as infuriating as Alpha
. As soon she stuns you, it's like waiting for a bus to run into your character. The result is never pretty. I was fortunate to take the first round thanks to a couple clutch Expert Mid P holds, though I knew all it'd take is one CB, or BURST to run Ayane into the ground. Yurlungur was on point in the next round and pretty much shut down my attempts to get offense going almost achieving a GREAT. The third round was a bit more back and forth and I even got opportunities to try out some "Alpha-only" combos, but it wasn't quite enough and Yurlungur edged out the round with a devious RUSH barely catching Ayane in the back. The next round was a close one but unfortunately ended with more ingenious uses of RUSH, running the score up to 2-2.Yurlungur and I were now tied, and he was heavily threatening to reset the bracket. Yurlungur continued to remain on point with his offense and took the first two rounds convincingly with near GREATs. He was now one round away from resetting the bracket and I was getting tired of his Alpha shit. In round three I just YOLO'ed Alpha and backed her jello ass into the corner where I repeatedly bashed her jello head into the wall. Now Yurlungur got a taste of his own medicine as I pressured and YOLO'ed him. I threw everything but the kitchen sink at the jello queen and convincingly tied this set at two rounds a piece. It was do or die time for both of us. Either Yurlungur resets me, or I knock him out of the tournament. The final round of this set was easily the most intense match we've had so far. Both of us were going hard at each other trying to find a hole in the opponent's defense to get our offense started. Yurlungur hit two RUSH's in this round and drained Ayane's health down to a little more than a sliver. But then courtesy of a low wake-up kick, I quickly got in a quick burst of offense deep-stunning Alpha and was literally ONE setup away from taking the tournament. Unfortunately I made a very costly miscalculation and was treated to Alpha's parry, and subsequent combo closing out the set 3-2 in Yurlungur's favour. He just won three straight sets with Alpha against my Ayane
. I was devastated at that point. One of the last characters I expected to face just decimated me. I just experienced one of the worst feelings that a player in Grand Finals can feel; being reset on.Yurlungur extended his right hand and said "GG's". My reply though was "Dude, we ain't done yet! I'm in Winner's, you just reset me!" And off to the character select screen we went. If Yurlungur was gunna stick with Alpha-152, I needed to change my gameplan and fast, so I opted for my sub-main Christie. When Yurlungur saw that, his face lit up with fear and quickly darted off of Alpha. I was like "Huh, you just won don't you have to stay on Alpha?". He told me that, "No, it's a new set so I can change". I looked at one of the TO's TTT's Teevo, and he concurred that Yurlungur can change, because he clearly wants no part of the Christie/Alpha-152 match-up. He opted to go with his main Helena instead. The classic Christie vs. Helena match-up! Always a favourite in the West LOL. Christie was outfitted in her daring pop idol outfit with her bobcut and aviators and Helena was donning her gorgeous greek dress and her new stunning braid added to Last Round. Our first set of the reset would take place on the ever-relaxing Zack Island. Yurlungur immediately went on the offensive at R1F and tried to get Helena's reset pressure going. Unfortunately for him, my defense with Christie was strong and my on-point punishment ensured that I came out on top in the first round. The second round was punctuated by a couple strong CB combos quickly reducing Helena's health bar to ashes. The third round mirrored the first a bit, with Christie shutting down Helena's offense with repeated Mid P holds at every turn. With a sliver of health left for Helena, Yurlungur went "Fuck it", and did a run-up-grab with her 5T. Christie's life lead proved too much to topple and Helena fell to a 66K hard read, low-crush from Christie against Helena's own 66K low kick.
The score is now 1-0 FoN, and a trip to the character select screen was in order. Yurlungur went with Leifang, an understandable choice, and outfitted her in her beautiful black dress with stockings, red-frame glasses and her new lovely braid hairstyle. Set two took place in the "COMING SOON" circus show. R1F opened up with a 7K from Christie knocking Leifang flat on her ass. "Heheh, did you expect a punch?" I thought to myself and continued to remind Yurlungur to respect my 7K
! The surprise element from the 7K's through off Yurlungur's game completely, and Leifang quickly found herself backed into a corner being treated to brutal wall combos and 66T resets. Fun stuff! First round goes to Christie with a GREAT. Yurlungur got his composure back and effectively shut down my offense in the second round, taking it convincingly. The next round was a back & forth one with a good balance of offense and defense from both characters. However, some costly 3P+K misuses and whiffs cost Yurlungur this round as I made sure to punish each mistake appropriately. Next round was a tight one with Leifang hitting a half-life combo fairly early courtesy of a well-placed CH. Both players punished each other's mistakes and whittled each other's health down to about a sliver, but Yurlungur opted to go for a low wake-up kick right at the end, that I quickly reacted to and punished accordingly. "NOPE! THERE WILL BE NO WAKE UP KICKS DUDE!" I stated after punishing the WUK LOL.The score is 2-0 of the reset bracket and Yurlungur is now down to one character select left, which he naturally made use of. Knowing that he was now backed into a tight corner, and was quickly running out of options, Yurlungur decided to make the choice that everyone was fearing and, that I had hoped wouldn't come down to. He chose Christie as his final swan song. Yes, the final set of DOA5:LR at TORYUKEN 4 would be decided in a Christie mirror. I was just shaking my head at this point, but I knew what had to be done. The battleground for the third set would take place on the ground floor of the "CRIMSON" stage, one of the new playgrounds introduced in Last Round. Yurlungur outfitted his Christie in her police outfit from earlier with the bobcut and shades, and I kept mine in the same outfit that I have been using up until this point. At R1F I wasn't screwing around, and immediately took the fight to Yurlungur with a furious PPPP2P string and continued to try and mount pressure that Yurlungur did respond to properly and fought back. My holds were on point, along with my slow escaping, effectively shutting down his attempts at offense and closed out the round with a stun mix-up off of 4K2KP. Yurlungur came out much more aggressive in the next round and made use of 4T for some much needed pressure that quickly drained my health bar. He also made some good escapes from my setups and caught me with a delay off of one of Christie's Mid K's for a small juggle to take the round. I was like "Ok then", then promptly opened the next round with 6PP for a quick CH stun gaining momentum quickly. It didn't last too long and Yurlungur continued to try and set up 4T pressure. I fortunately escaped his pressure and mounted my own 4T resets! This round got really tight, I mean, like down to the frickin' wire, but a costly missed punishment opportunity and a poorly conceived throw attempt netted me the third round. In round 4 I resumed my assault and opened up with PK, however Yurlungur aggressively fought back and scored a small juggle resulting in a wall slam for my Christie. Despite my successful attempts to stuff a lot of Yurlungur's poorly placed moves, he still managed to net enough damage to secure the round with a Mid k hold at the end.
Two rounds apiece, do or die time for Yurlungur! He either makes something happen now or will be eliminated from the tournament. Maintaining my strategy, I opened up the final round with more aggression and continued to take the fight to Yurlungur attempting to seal his fate. I could see he was a bit nervous at this point because he was starting to free cancel and throw a bit more along with some generous doses of 6PPPP. Like round 3, this round was also very tight, with Yurlungur setting up a hi-counter 4T near the end, then proceeding to make a desperate attempt to save his tournament life by chucking out 6PPPP against my block, which I waited out and punished with 6T, making the reset bracket score 3-0 and securing the victory! Force of Nature, your TORYUKEN 4: Stronghold Dead or Alive 5: Last Round champion!
I was both estatic and disheartened as the final match of DOA5LR closed out offstream at approximately 7:55 PM Sunday night. I was estatic because I won my second major, but severely bummed that the intense matches didn't get streamed. Not even the Grand Finals at least! But on the bright side I was just happy to be able to spend this exciting weekend with friends that share the same love of 3D fighters and DOA that I do
. To close out our tournament experience, many of the players went to a nearby Zet's restaurant to eat some much needed food, because quite a bit of players were borderline starving all day along with running on an insufficient amount of sleep (remember to get a good night's rest kiddies!). After the big meal, we gathered our things and parted ways, with me driving a very exhausted NanhouDrops back home.I'm Force of Nature and this is my DOA5:LR story. I look forward to hearing yours in the future!
I'm the one around the middle-left wearing the stripped shirt and dark jeans making a douchey pose and looking at the Heavens going: "WHY? Why no stream time?"
TORYUKEN 4: Stronghold DOA5:LR Top 4:
1st Force of Nature
2nd Yurlungur
3rd TTT Teevo
4th og23
TL
R TORYUKEN was amazing and I can't wait for the next one! I also hope to see you there!
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