Free Step Dodge

Mai is probably the biggest character reveal we have seen since Marie Rose, and she is available now on Playstation Network, Steam and XBOX Live. She's available in two different SKUs, price differing depending on the amount of costumes you would like to see her in. With the patch you can also buy the new King of Fighters outfits for various characters.

What are your initial thoughts on Mai? Feel free to share all of your newly found tech/combos in her exclusive character forum. You can also share matches you've recorded and stream online using FSD as your primary source to expand your knowledge outside of your typical lab routine.

https://www.twitch.tv/primedirectivegaming

1. Kwiggle
2. Crazy Steady
3. Hajin

If you've missed any of the tournament this far you can check out all of the matches at primdirectivegaming's twitch channel. The charity show is still going now and results will be posted later after the event. You are getting a great viewing of tournament regulars: Crazy Steady, Shazzmatazzles, Hajin, Kwiggle (surprise!), Black Moon Rising and more -- so stay tuned with this West Coast Major staple.

Remember that Mai will be available to download on PSN and XBL 9.13.16 -- this is one of the most important days of the year, so be sure to mark it on you calendar if you haven't already. The always awesome and exciting Cali Crush tournament is happening this weekend and will be the LAST DOA event to not have Mai as a playable character... don't miss Kasumi's last tournament before she is brutally murdered by Mai off the tier list completely.

But there are plenty more reasons to not miss Cali Crush... Crazy Steady and Hajin will be getting into it in a FT10 -- we knew they were going to fight in some way so why not do it big? You can always feel the intensity when these players fight; expect a brutal set here.

The Cali Crush tournament has...

Opinion: Dead or Alive 5 has not only proven to be a long lasting offline tournament game, but it's also contributed to breaking a curse of bad cross-overs. Sure we have seen some good ones over the years, but largely it's a topic in games that is not in our control to the slightest as it's a big business decision to even entertain the idea in the first place so just getting the exact crossover you want for your game can be incredibly rare.

We have seen the lamest cross-overs you could ever hope for such as: Yoda, Darth Vader, Kratos... Hello Kitty and Sonic... Mario in a NBA game. These have little meaning to me, but DOA5 has Virtua Fighter guest characters. Virtua Fighter inspired Dead or Alive's existence so it can be seen as a truly beautiful thing that these games exist within another now. The Virtua Fighter characters are well done additions to do the DOA cast, not just pointless throw-ins that get...

Taking place in Dallas, TX this weekend, Absolute Battle played host to some of the finest players in the community. BBoyDragon made the trip down and some of Dallas' most well-known players were also in attendance. Surprising more than a few, Sweet Revenge appears to have located his controller and popped back up at a tournament for the first time in quite a while. MASTER was also in attendance, tossing Sweet Revenge into Losers after a close set. Sweet Revenge then battled back, taking the first set against MASTER in commanding fashion for the reset. The final set was much closer, with all signs pointing to MASTER taking it before an impressive rally brought SR the 'W'.

Check the stream archive below. The tournament runs from about the 12:00 mark to about 3:02 on the timeline.

http://www.twitch.tv/saltymayhem/v/86012150?t=12m32s

With the upcoming launch of a new addition to the Dead or Alive 5 Last Round roster, there is a lot of hype within the DoA community. In the spirit of keeping the hype train moving, we thought it would be a grand idea to let everyone know that the Battle Royal 2016 finale, NEC 17, now has its pre-registration page up and running. The tournament will take place in Philadelphia, PA at the Valley Forge Casino Resort from December 16-18, 2016. We know that most of our readers didn't even make it to the first sentence of this article, what with the article title sending them scrambling to the pre-reg page over at Big E's...

Congrats are in order to @XcaliburBladeZ for not only winning Summer Jam X; but also for winning yet another chapter in the 2016 Team NINJA Battle Royal. If you missed SJX live why not stream it right now via Team Sp00ky's Channel? The event starts 3h15m into the video link provided.

Top 8 started exactly how I wanted it: no Kasumi, no Phase 4 -- and no Christie. In the refreshing startup matchup we see @Jaegar and his seasoned Rig take on the mid-boss himself @Rikuto. I think the community needed to see a match-up like this because many don't get to see a Bayman perform to this calibur, and Jaegar is a player that's very good at maximizing his damage against heavy fighters.

This had to have been a very interesting Summer Jam experience for long-time player @Blackburry because not only did an unfortunate reset bury his momentum in a fight he was largely in control of, but before he even got...

Summer Jam 2016 Stream

Summer Jam is one our staple tournaments as it turned a lot of us to the possibility of DOA5 being taken seriously in the competitive offline scene... almost four years later we are still getting it done in DOA5. This tournament is part of Team NINJA's Battle Royal so expect to see the best possible matches from the community!

Thank you nycfurby for streaming this event for us, BigEGaming for being an awesome host the fourth year in a row -- and to Team NINJA for making this 2016 Battle Royal happen.

When a studio like Team NINJA makes a high quality game like Dead or Alive 5, it's natural to want more, but is it a little too soon to be expecting another game? Evidence would say yes, as some from the dev team have questioned if DOA6 would even come out and with Mai coming to the game in two months, and with about six months left of planned Battle Royal events why would it be announced or even hinted this year?

In the 90s, I primarily played video games on the Nintendo 64... a console that people point out is severly lacking in games, but to me that never really mattered much because of the quality of the games I was playing. I had a triple A game in every genre and I couldn't wait to play them again so it's hard for me to understand this new generation of gamers that see games as so disposable, because the way I see it DOA5's lifespan is as long as the community keeps playing it.

Hype can sometimes carry a lot of the market now, and if you observe the market you will see...

Dead or Alive Festival was a killer event that not only delivered one of the finest fighting tournaments the FGC has ever seen, but also revealed the addition of Mai (from Fatal Fury and KoF) to the Dead or Alive roster. I believe it was very exciting to any of the community skeptics who thought the reveal may only be a few costumes and a new stage.

In this excellent article written by Christian Bahn we get to hear more from the often-times quiet, Creative Director of Team NINJA, Tom Lee -- who has quite a bit to say not just about crossovers, but the community as well. The Virtua Fighter crossover was the blueprint of success, not only because the characters transitioned well into the DOA universe, but because it made sense. Now that...

Mai Shiranui from the legendary Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series is coming to Dead or Alive! Since her birthplace is in Japan it seems like Dead or Alive Festival 2016 is the perfect place to announce this intense crossover. She has her own style of ninjutsu and the look to fit in right at home with the DOA girls... and she's coming soon!

There will also be an Attack on Titan stage, tons more costumes (including some KoF) and even some VR announced for Dead or Alive Xtreme 3. Team NINJA is dipping into a lot of neat and interesting projects this year!


KoF Maximum Impact Video | KoF XIII Combo Video | Mai Shiranui Wiki

FULL SHOW

Show Highlights:

Interesting Photo Contest with multiple winners - Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 VR announcement - Dead or Alive Costume Lineup for Fairytale and other various anime - @EMPEROR_COW took over the cosplay contest

Teru Rock takes on Bayman - Mila is taken to new heights - Insane Phase 4 action by @BBoyDragon - XcaliburBladeZ brings back Alpha and goes warp crazy - Bladez wins DOA Festival 2016

Stay tuned for the replay with news to follow.

In just a few short days the DOA Festival will be streamed live via Tokyo, Japan. Team NINJA has just now recently added the event trailer to their Youtube channel, and this is probably the most exciting thing we have seen from Team NINJA all year long... if not since Last Round or Dead or Alive Xtreme 3's announcement last festival.

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of DOA, the trailer highlights the past games and may even create a desire in your heart for a remastered DOA collection fully optimized for online play. Of course this is wishful thinking, but what could be in store for us DOA5 players? Hayashi hinted big things in store for DOA and DOA Festival seems like the perfect platform to inform the community on these things.

Regardless of what happens, we are getting an exciting event that will appeal to anyone remotely interested in Dead or Alive. Keep coming to FreeStepDodge this...

DOA Festival was an amazing event last year not just because of the incredible offline tournament -- but because it was an event that had serious appeal to every last person remotely interested in Dead or Alive. This year Team NINJA is doing it again with the same mindset they had in 2015.

Team NINJA announced Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 at the event last year; a game that people had waited nearly ten years to play. With an announcement like that last year, do you think we could see another special DOA related announcement next month? My opinion is, yes... we will see something new; especially since Hayashi has indicated big news for DOA more recently.

The electric Xcalibur Blades, the frantic and visceral style of @BBoyDragon and the risky but graceful Air Gear will all be representing North...

Livestream Pools: https://www.twitch.tv/roftv
Livestream Top 8: https://www.twitch.tv/gaminglive_event

A quick rehash from the event page posted by @Gehaktbal for all those streaming this very early morning... or night I guess:

June 11th:
12pm - 2pm : Pool 1 + Pool 2
2pm - 4pm: Pool 3 + Pool 4
4pm - 5pm: ---Break---
5pm - 7pm: Top 16 to Top 8
7pm - 8:30pm: Top 8
(DOA all day)

Be sure to tune into this tournament -- there are always quite a few memorable matches at this event, and to my knowledge Gehaktbal has won it nearly every year, but lost maybe just once against Sweet Revenge when he was on his big win streak in the DOA5U days. These players are ready for blood I think -- hoping to see something new and refreshing myself. RoF sounds like the place.

Today Spooky's Channel was updated with DOA clips from an event that happened in Taiwan. I knew nothing about this tournament; which is strange, but this shows how far along the offline scene for DOA has come. We have tournaments going on all over the world... check out TWFM site if you want more information about the event.

Speaking of the world -- Republic of Fighters is happening tomorrow in Paris. Check the story below for all the good details including streaming information. These videos should satisfy your cravings until then:


MartianBoy... hmm name sounds familiar. This guy plays as Bass and takes on a Hitomi that tries using pressure to get to Bass. It doesn't work in the beginning, but he begins to block more and the Bass chokes a bit but still gets the win. Good tech, and good environmental damage in the early going.


This Hitomi player, 100cm, fights a Marie Rose the best he can with...

Players from all around the world are wondering... where can I compete in a Dead or Alive major that is not in the states? Thanks to the Team NINJA Battle Royal sets the community has been given a bigger platform to compete. Providing everything you could possibly want, it's time for Australians to take advantage of this opportunity and show the world what they have got at BAM8.

With the 1,000 USD Prize Pool, free entry to the tournament and a chance to win a trip to the final showdown -- what have you go to lose? You've been playing DOA5 since 2012; you have been keeping up with it every step of the way and now is the time to step up and put your skills to the test in this incredible Australian major.

Join the Facebook group and get yourself ready for Melbourne!

Have you been keeping up with The 2016 Battle Royal? If you haven't; it's important to note again that BAM8 will be happening May 13th. So as you train and plan for this event and future events be sure to scope out the competition by watching the previous tournament.




We see some intense matches here from @Berzerk! @ebabil @Tones @PerfectLegend and more. This was a highly overlooked Last Round tournament and if you haven't seen it already -- be sure to give it a proper viewing by watching all three videos included.

Battle Arena Melbourne 8 is planned for next month and will be the next part of Team NINJA's 2016 Battle Royal. What's so unique about this tournament is that it will take place in Australia (if you didn't know already ). To my knowledge it is the only Australian major for DOA5. The winner will walk away with the experience of a lifetime; and will be flown out for free to the showdown at NEC. Worth it? I think so! There is also a 1,000 USD prize pot bonus.

What do you think about heading out to this tournament? Questions probably would seem fair for a big trip like this... so check out the Facebook Event page and ask away. You can register for the event at Couch Warriors -- and remember that registration for the DOA5 event is free...

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...

The fourth episode of the Fighters' Destiny DOA Documentary was released a few days ago, and if you haven't had the opportunity to give it a watch or noticed it in our media section, then we highly recommend that you give it a watch.

This latest episode focuses on the International Players taking part of the Battle Royal tournament series, shedding light and giving insight on players such as NEC's 2016 tournament champ, JC Akira, Teru Rock, Reepal "R I P" Parbhoo, Europe's very own @Gehaktbal, as well as the very familiar faces of the North American DOA players, each weighing in on how they take their DOA offensive/defensive approach compared to other players in different territories.

You have all of that plus some great discussion about the Battle Royal...