Free Step Dodge

'Kumite in Tennesse 2022' felt like a classic Dead or Alive offline tournament where the quality of matches stood out beyond anything else, but the talent, improvement of existing talent, standout new players and a grand finale that tells a story between two of the best fighters to ever play the game intensified everything. Viewership on Twitch was reassuring to people that thought DOA was completely dead in the water, engagement was certainly there in the chat and the general consensus of this tournament from the community seemed to be extremely positive. This is a great change in comparison to performances and viewership of DOA6 last year and will hopefully remain a constant as we move forward with 'Frosty Faustings' and other tournaments next year.


For a while now there has been some hype circulating over what Sub...

The original Dead or Alive: Ultimate is returning to XBOX LIVE on your original XBOX console through the free Insignia service releasing November 15th of 2022. This service will host 20 original XBOX games online at launch including mega hits such as Conker Live & Reloaded & Crimson Skies. The Insignia service is currently invitation only and you can register your email for a chance to join. We received our invitation within two days of requesting.

Insignia will always be free, and as long as your system has the current update and you are given an invitation from Insignia, it should be very easy to set yourself up to play DOAU again online on your original XBOX. Your ranking and leaderboard scores will be refreshed so the reboot of both games online can be seen as a clean slate and an equal playing field for the community.

If your XBOX system is modded you will be able to use Insignia, and there are convenient...

After KIT 2022 Dead or Alive 6 will return to the offline scene next year at Frosty Faustings XV coming off another long hiatus. Lombard, Illinois will be the fighting grounds of this tournament and the dates to save for this event will be February 3rd-4th of 2023. You will need to purchase a Spectator Pass to compete in this tournament and you will have until mid-January to do so.

There are not a lot of DOA events at this point in time, so hopefully the community sees it as something special and will register. If enough players register that will increase the amount of stream time our game will get at professional level, and this is of course always important.

Here is the official Frosty Faustings XV registration link (once again you will only need the Spectator Pass as this is a side tournament), and the official page for...

Notice for the readers: this news story does not confirm Dead or Alive 7 or a new iteration of Dead or Alive 6. The story does however imply great possibility for a future.

Video Games Chronicle's latest interview with Team NINJA studios president Fumihiko Yasuda was extremely revealing about the future for existing IPs, and while he was there primarily to do a collaborative interview with Bloodborne producer Maasaki Yamagiwa, he went out of his way to allude heavily in his dialogue that he cares about existing franchises and wants to do something when the timing is right like any other project they do at Team NINJA.

President Yasuda's delivery in this interview was well-thought, well-spoken, enjoyable to read, transparent and he has the best composure for press interviews we have seen from Team NINJA in over a decade. He controlled...

Awesmic's storytelling ability and lore videos for the Dead or Alive franchise have been a refreshing take on series content and have kept things engaging for players waiting patiently for the possibility of a new game or updated DOA6. One of his more recent videos was all about the incredible professional wrestler, Bass Armstrong, and while some overlook his character; Bass is one of the more complex fighters on the DOA roster. The relationship between father and daughter is something that's often overlooked in games, and the story between Bass & Tina tells it realistically.


To no surprise, Matt Ponton contributed to this story, and when you take a great storyteller like Awesmic and combine it with Ponton's knowledge on the character - it's going to be a complete take. The story of Bass couldn't have been told any better. Though it would be nice to know who won between Bass and Brad Wong in the Dead or Alive 4...

Team NINJA has made some pretty big announcements concerning their latest games at this year's Tokyo Game Show. As expected, Dead or Alive 7 was not one of the games shown in the four plus hours of stream time. With that being said, the new Team NINJA games lead by Fumihiko Yasuda look very good and could serve as masterful time-burners for the community while we wait for another fighter. If another fighter even happens.

The first of the two new Team NINJA IPs shown is Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (announced initially at E3) and the game might be just another Nioh for some, but it's coming to Game Pass and XBOX, a platform that has yet to get a title like Nioh from Team NINJA. They released a surprise demo for the game on Playstation 5 & XBOX Series S|X and this will be available for around a week, which makes this a great time to give your feedback on Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty to Team NINJA...

Sadly, Tad 'T-Boy' Meng, a well-known member of our Dead or Alive community has passed away. The Texas fighter has befriended many DOA players, dating back to the XBOX 360 era of Dead or Alive 4. T-Boy was known for playing the wild-card, Ein and was always diligent and ready to help out other players so they could grow as fighters and most importantly as friends.

@Project Bokuho made the announcement on the competitive Facebook page and said in his post:

T-Boy and I have been best pals since the Absolute Battle/D.I.D. days. To everyone in this group, I ask that you please leave him and his family in your prayers

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Team NINJA community manager, @MASTER, also had some uplifting things to say about T-Boy:

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Hoodless recently made an announcement via his Twitter that he would be doing a Dead or Alive 5: Last Round special on Playstation for the month of July which gives you 4 weeks of new DOA5 tournament content to enjoy that starts on Independence Day. These tournaments are indeed online, but they will be worth your time as a competitor for the free entry and prize pot possibility. Please take a look at the available dates and register to the events that you can participate in.

As a quick reference the tournament dates this month are:

- July 4th (Independence Day) (Playstation)...

Team NINJA makes a plethora of great different titles that are outside of the DOA fandom, and we are going to begin showcasing their different works such as Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, NINJA Gaiden, Nioh & Stranger of Paradise on the home page. Later on, this month there will be additional forums added to our subcategories which will include:

- Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
- Final Fantasy: Stranger of Paradise
- Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation

With three additional subforums, and Team NINJA news of every title, we not only intend to inform you on everything Team NINJA is doing, but we also want to attract players from these communities to the Dead or Alive series. The Dead or Alive series will always be the absolute main focal point at Free Step Dodge - but we want to also highlight the often times underrated Team NINJA. We truly believe at FSD that Team NINJA makes some of the best games of all time, and I think a good...

Yes - a new stunning and impressionable IP took precedence over a new Dead or Alive or a new Ninja Gaiden from Team NINJA. While it could be viewed as peculiar to some, KOEI TECMO wasn't even planning to be at the show at all, so it was nice to see something from the team ahead of TGS. Plus, Phil Spencer brought up the importance of Japanese development being a part of their systems, and that they missed working with Team NINJA like they did in the past.

Team NINJA's last game was Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin and it was considered a great action-rpg for the fans of Final Fantasy I. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is also being categorized as an action-rpg. We don't know a lot about the game yet, but it's being headed by Fumihiko Yasuda, and he has in some capacity worked on every franchise Team NINJA has at their disposal and is most famous for working on Nioh. To make...

Dead or Alive 6 has been coming back into our feeds with offline & online tournaments for your viewing and studious pleasure, but it's also been paying off to compete online, maybe even more so than offline - which might come as a bit of a shock for regular offline competitors. Because of the extremely generous and loyal DOA community, DOA6 accrued 1,039 USD for the month of May between the Emery Reigns Throw-Down & Hoodless Weekly. We are expecting higher numbers in future months because: interest has increased for Dead or Alive 6, people are anticipating more Emery Reigns Throw-Down events, more prominent players in the community are contemplating weekly tournaments of their own, and the consistency of Hoodless Weekly remains as constant as it does necessary.


Emery Reigns has been the biggest draw in the DOA community. He knows how to promote his material, he put the time into the community to deserve the...

This Saturday Dead or Alive 6 will be live streamed at Combo Breaker 22 for the duration of Top 4. NetBattles will begin streaming this offline tournament at 4PM EST and we will get 60-90 minutes of stream time. While this is a fairly short day for DOA6 it's encouraging to see the game return to events, and not only that, but to see that people are still interested in playing after such a long hiatus.


There are other recent tournaments that you May have missed this month: Hoodless live streamed his 100th weekly tournament this week, the Italian scene is still competing with their Elimination Round tournament, but the chances are really high that you didn't hear a thing about Australia's BAM 22 tournament that happened several days ago. BAM 22 was not a heavily promoted tournament, but the performance of fighters from this event is what made it so good. Check out the BAM...

Hoodless is the Dead or Alive 6 World Champion, and he has been a superb one, offering the community a hosted online tournament every week that not only highlights our fighters, but helps get them paid in the process. This is his 100th week hosting this event and Master joins the festivities by congratulating the champion and joining the commentary team. Please join the chat tonight and give our champ some praise for his immense efforts for this community! If you haven't already - follow his adventures on Twitch & YouTube as he continues to do these incredible weekly tournaments.

If you're new to the Dead or Alive franchise and own just about any type of XBOX system, you can get the entire fighting series for 86.99. That's less than one of the season passes at regular price, but as a special bonus, these season passes are half off for XBOX players as part of the discount. This sale has just begun and will be running until the 23rd of May.

Dead or Alive 1: Ultimate is an underrated gem that many people new to the franchise have been curious about. The game is currently on sale for 7.99 and while it no longer includes online play or wide-screen support; the character models look really nice on XBOX S|X and I have spent a number of hours just enjoying it without needing to hook up my Saturn or Playstation. This is the cheapest title of the sale and a great start to your digital DOA library.

Dead or Alive 2: Ultimate and Dead or Alive 3, both look incredibly refreshing on S|X. Both of these titles are priced at 11.99 and...

Today is the last day to register for the Illinois Combo Breaker event All In Together hosted by your DOA6 World Champion Hoodless. Dead or Alive 6 will be on the tournament stage for the first time in months. Seeing as how many fighters have improved their game drastically over the pandemic, it's extremely important that they bring some of that momentum to this event seeing that it's a great challenge to bring DOA6 up to where it was a few years ago after it has taken an extensive break from the offline scene.

You have until 9:59pm PDT today to register for this tournament. Keep in mind that while All In Together is free, you must buy a community pass to participate at this event. Also make reference to their Smash.GG. Stay tuned May 28th...

Dead or Alive 6 is starting to see some more activity in its competitive scene again and Italian players are looking to get in the action being showcased and highlighted for their efforts. There are some real talented players that are missing from this Italian tournament, but there are a wide range of advanced players and rookies at this event despite a total lack of pre-promotion in the most obvious shareable places. This tournament is unorthodox and follows its own set of rules, but please enjoy and support these DOA players in this ongoing event by MasterNINJARyu who has been seen by some as the "Italian reference point" to Team NINJA's mainstay games.


Elimination Round D definitely plays out like a rookie cup as most of these players are relatively new to the game and don't have any (or very little) offline experience. Akumasama and C-18 Chan were definitely among some of the standouts. C-18 Chan seemed to have some...

Twenty days ago, Koei Tecmo donated 500,000 USD (61,830,000 Japanese Yen) to help out with refugee efforts in Ukraine, and the impact of this is significant because alongside Sega they were among the first Japanese game companies to offer assistance to Ukraine. According to Kotaku, Koei Tecmo plans to get their players involved with donation efforts in the future. No matter what your political beliefs may be, it's a universal belief to care for the people that have no choice, have lost their homes, and possibly torn away from their loved ones.

The first order of business for most American companies was to announce the dismissal of goods to be sold in Russia due to the illegal invasion of Ukraine. Despite the debatable relationship between Japan and Russia - Tecmo Koei made it very apparent they would help Ukraine very early on in this war which could be viewed by most as courageous...

If you own one of the many versions of XBOX ONE you now have complete access to Dead or Alive 1-6 in one official place. This information was leaked sometime last week and was made official yesterday at the 20th Anniversary celebration of XBOX. The hype is all over the Internet, and this is not new information, but allow us to throw in a few more details that could pique your interest further and possibly garner your attention to join the "XBOX family."

For your convenience the prices will be listed for all of the "new" backwards compatible games, but if you still have all of your Dead or Alive games from the past you don't need to pay a dime as you can simply put in the original discs and boom, you are in the club, and you are ready to go. You will be prompted to install the game off the disc and it's yours forever and playable with the click of a button.

To think that people are raving over this and wanted it for years, but yet Sony turned their back on this idea...

BigE's Summer Jam 2021 is taking place next weekend at Cherry Hill, New Jersey and will be the first major to host Dead or Alive 6 in nearly two years thanks to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic keeping almost everyone at home. This is the first small step to coming back together as a community; this first opportunity in months. We have suffered from offline tournaments long enough, and now it's time to go back to showcasing our game with high level play and spectacular matches from some of the best players in the entire world.

Will Hoodless be at this event? YES! The Dead or Alive 6 World Champion is known to make his mark at nearly every possible offline event. Which character(s) will he pick this time? He does have a stunning arsenal to choose from doesn't he? More than likely he will stick to his guns: Zack & his elusive Rig whom can not be matched in Dead or Alive 5 or Dead or Alive 6. He has taken Rig to new heights and he will without doubt...

SNK recently announced that their mobile title The King of Fighters: All-Stars would crossover with Dead or Alive characters. The KOF characters: Mai (who appears in DOA5 & DOA6) and Kula Diamond (DOA6) were widely well received and the significance of this crossover several years later is that the relationship between SNK and Team NINJA is still apparent. This also marks the first time that DOA and Tekken have crossed over in any form of media as mentioned by veteran fighter, @DestructionBomb .

The King of Fighters competitive scene has been praising the look of Mai since debuting to DOA in Dead or Alive 5: Last Round. Both series seem to be a natural pair, and let's not forget the Virtua Fighter guest appearances in the DOA5 saga that changed the way we look at DOA competitively. KT and Team NINJA both seem to have a knack for keeping healthy relationships within the game industry and it's shown in this latest crossover...

Emery Reigns is hosting an online Dead or Alive 5: Last Round tournament this weekend and is a continuation of his successful 'Throwdown' tournament series. Since the COVID-19 pandemic and discontinuation of Dead or Alive 6 content & regular updates players have dipped into many different titles from the mixed Dead or Alive 4 to the masterpiece Dead or Alive 5 - it is direct proof that no game is the same in this franchise, but a few things they share include longevity and memorable moments. This tournament is special because DOA5LR is returning from a long hiatus and the passion of this game continues to impress the community as players that have been gone for a number of years are coming back for this two-day event.

This tournament is stacked with Dead or Alive...