Hello everyone!
Six years ago today, I set out with @virtuaPAI and @The HuBBs to create a Dead or Alive forum that could help spread the word about the depth of Dead or Alive. I'm happy to be sitting here six years later reflecting on how far we have come as a community. We took this series from average tournament entrant numbers of fourteen (high of thirty) to an average entrant number of sixty (high of ninety-eight). It would be a severe understatement to say we have had little growth since the days of Dead or Alive 4 and the Championship Gaming Series. Of course, we couldn't have grown so much without the help from everyone at Team NINJA and tournament organizers such as Eric "Big E" Smalls and Larry "Shin Blanka" Dixon.
In addition to the growth of our own local scene, the global community has grown even more. In the year of 2015 alone, we had two tournament events that featured players from across the oceans meeting together to compete. The Dead or Alive FESTIVAL in Japan drew over 300 attendees for it's first event, showing the growing community in Japan as the Top 16 was split up between competitive players from Taiwan, Korea, Japan, America, Australia, and the Netherlands. At the Battle Royal 2016 finals North East Championships 16, I was given the opportunity to discuss with Teru Rock and JC Akira about the DOA Japan Community. Here in the United States, it was widely believed that the two communities are very different. However, from my discussions it appears that the communities are actually very much the same. Working with Teru Rock and @EMPEROR_COW, Free Step Dodge has gone international. I have set up a permanent site for Japanese and Asian players to be given the chance to grow their communities like we have. I look forward to seeing their growth now that they have their own Free Step Dodge to enjoy.
Lastly, I have completed some minor updates to the styles of the site. These include updating the site logo, creating some new banner images for you all to enjoy (provided by the Free Step Dodge members themselves), and providing the ability for the navigation bar to be always on the page when scrolling through those long discussions everyone enjoys.
I hope you all continue to help one another as we take our journey to grow this community together. We've done an amazing job so far, and I look forward to seeing what I get to reflect on in the coming years.
~Matt
Six years ago today, I set out with @virtuaPAI and @The HuBBs to create a Dead or Alive forum that could help spread the word about the depth of Dead or Alive. I'm happy to be sitting here six years later reflecting on how far we have come as a community. We took this series from average tournament entrant numbers of fourteen (high of thirty) to an average entrant number of sixty (high of ninety-eight). It would be a severe understatement to say we have had little growth since the days of Dead or Alive 4 and the Championship Gaming Series. Of course, we couldn't have grown so much without the help from everyone at Team NINJA and tournament organizers such as Eric "Big E" Smalls and Larry "Shin Blanka" Dixon.
In addition to the growth of our own local scene, the global community has grown even more. In the year of 2015 alone, we had two tournament events that featured players from across the oceans meeting together to compete. The Dead or Alive FESTIVAL in Japan drew over 300 attendees for it's first event, showing the growing community in Japan as the Top 16 was split up between competitive players from Taiwan, Korea, Japan, America, Australia, and the Netherlands. At the Battle Royal 2016 finals North East Championships 16, I was given the opportunity to discuss with Teru Rock and JC Akira about the DOA Japan Community. Here in the United States, it was widely believed that the two communities are very different. However, from my discussions it appears that the communities are actually very much the same. Working with Teru Rock and @EMPEROR_COW, Free Step Dodge has gone international. I have set up a permanent site for Japanese and Asian players to be given the chance to grow their communities like we have. I look forward to seeing their growth now that they have their own Free Step Dodge to enjoy.
Lastly, I have completed some minor updates to the styles of the site. These include updating the site logo, creating some new banner images for you all to enjoy (provided by the Free Step Dodge members themselves), and providing the ability for the navigation bar to be always on the page when scrolling through those long discussions everyone enjoys.
I hope you all continue to help one another as we take our journey to grow this community together. We've done an amazing job so far, and I look forward to seeing what I get to reflect on in the coming years.
~Matt