Frosty Faustings XVII is clearly for everyone that thought Dead or Alive 6 was just dead, but the community always comes back to make sure that it is alive. Dead or Alive 6 World Champion Hoodless has been an organizer and performer of this tournament for years now making sure that DOA6 gets its time in the spotlight. The tournament has averaged a fairly healthy 150-200 viewers which actually isn't too far behind what we've seen from Team Spooky's stream today. The overall roster proves that DOA6's player count needs improvement, but there are ALWAYS people interested in watching the gameplay even after five years have passed.
Thankfully a YouTube Replay will become available soon for everyone that missed it or some of it like myself! FSD will keep you posted on the release of that replay as soon it's out. Thank you for your patience and thanks to UGS for preserving the tournament with YouTube. Twitch is utterly worthless at tournament perseveration as eventually everything shared becomes a dead link. For a glance at the bracket, you can check out the Start.GG and note that there weren't many players, but the quality of matches was impressive and once against we had a bigger audience than competing fighters: Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Guilty Gear.
With this Top 4 Stream we start things out with the Winner's Final pitting Neko's Honoka against the Rig of Hoodless and while Neko has vastly improved - Hoodless demonstrated that Neko is not yet ready for the DOA6 World Champion. This set was completely in Rig's favor, and he dominated just about every round showing that there are levels to winning at Dead or Alive 6.
Winner's Semi
Deity vs Flame Falco
Deity and Flame Falco tore the house down with a classic good vs. evil battle featuring Raidou & Ryu Hayabusa. The first fight of this set takes place within the circular lab and Hayabusa quickly gets the first round utilizing his speed advantage but struggles to get the job done in the second as Deity begins to use the wall and his massive strength advantage. Hayabusa is even blasted to defeat by a devastating Raidou Fireball that Flame Falco failed to reverse in time for the second-round win.
The third round was where tournament nerves started as both fighters started dropping combos but still lead to a Hayabusa round win. During the fourth round of the fight Deity chose safe combos instead and as he took the advantage Raidou closed the round with a bigger confidence boosted BnB. The last round in the set was very close, but Raidou took the first game win with a beautiful 33T followed up by that horrible 66T OH that does hardly any damage but can sometimes complete a game.
Their second fight at the sweat wrestling training ring was a last round affair that ended tragically for Raidou. Deity really put on some serious pressure in the early goings of the fight; he had combos, he had fireball advantages, mix-ups on the wall but that did not stop Falco from successfully getting better reads on the much slower DOA villain. Now with a big win under his belt Falco won at M.I.S.T with utmost confidence and has Deity downloaded. Credit MUST be given to Deity for picking up rotten-to-the-core Raidou, and one day I do believe that Deity will see a major victory with arguably the worst character in DOA6.
Loser's Final
Now this Neko fight was a lot more polarizing and detailed in comparison to the bout with Hoodless & Rig. Starting things off in the hidden village Honoka gets early advantage with those devastating hugs, combos, and some severe punishment on Hayabusa. It was fairly entertaining to watch, but it also wasn't long before Flame Falco made a comeback; especially after dropping to the bottom tier and escaping Neko's dangerous positioning near the wall. Falco's reads are just out of line and out of control and that's definitely what wins him this match and the entire set where he completely squashes Neko at Zack Island.
Being fair to Neko, he does have one of the best current Honoka's within Dead or Alive 6 period. He's got the damage, he's got the combos, and he's also got Honoka's style down to perfection. Unfortunately, the reality of this situation is that Flame Falco is on top of his game and he's using one of the best if not the best character in the game. If Neko can work on his holds, reaction time and damage just a little bit he will be far more formidable in this game, but also future iterations where Honoka will inevitably return with a more robust move set.
Grand Finals
Hoodless (W) vs Flame Falco 
Hoodless and Falco had a dog fight in this set; especially in the early going and I think it's important to anyone that's new watching these tournaments that they have been at each other's throats for years and it started off with Falco being in somewhat of a precarious position as his skill level was extremely amateur, but in the present day he has become an extremely effective Hayabusa player that can now do his most difficult combos and inputs on the fly now.
These two competitors start off at the Chinese Firecracker Festival and it instantly becomes a high-level fight as these two are at the peak of their game and both characters heavily benefit from the floor obstructions (which are used at the beginning of this bout within the opening seconds), and the exchanges are just out of this world in this back-and-forth fight. The fans were clearly behind Flame Falco because everyone wants to see the underdog win and he was fighting like he wanted it ending rounds with Izuna Drops, getting successful bounce combos off of the exploding floor and walls.
Hoodless always fights back through it and he did just that here for a first match win, and he's not going to allow a reset if he can help it. The set starts in Hoodless' favor even with the impressive opening to Falco's gameplay. Their next match took place at the DOA Colosseum, and this is typically where Rig could absolutely dominate because he has a free-range attack zone and if he gets to the electric wall that benefits Hoodless as well.
With that said Falco absolutely tore Rig apart here with incredible timing, holds and defensive reads. He dissected Rig and used a lot of his energy to win this match, and it showed in their next fight at the Crash Zone where Hoodless reclaimed his prowess and dominated his competition. This is also where an opponent of Hoodless begins to lose some of their steam. Three fights in and you're being punished by constant kicks, highs, mids, launchers, pokes, sweeps anything and everything you can think of is being slammed into your character's body and also your mental fortitude. Rig isn't the toughest character to beat in DOA5, but in DOA6 it becomes a mental workout quickly and Hoodless knows it.
Flame Falco is set to fight him at the circular Lab with electric floors and this is where he appears to have his best show and seems to prefer an open field with one wall that benefits all. He succeeds at getting his space and repeats the strategy he ignited at the DOA Colosseum. He refueled getting this stage and managed to get a second victory over the DOA6 World Champion. When the camera shoots to Falco you can see the level of emotion on his face, and he has fully realized that he is in this game and that his practice has paid off.
The level of emotion that was expressed can also backfire when you are fighting the best guy to do it and I'm afraid it showed in the coming rounds. Rig got his big moment at the M.I.S.T stage to completely eradicate Falco. Flame's holds plus reads were completely off and Hoodless destroyed the Super NINJA with a plethora of combos and kicks that Falco could no longer compete with at this stage of the set. Congratulations to Hoodless for winning Frosty Faustings XVII and not allowing the determined Flame Falco to reset the bracket.
While this was indeed another win for Hoodless, this tournament was all about Flame Falco's rise and improvements in the scene. Maybe next year or at another event Falco can get the big W he deserves and has earned.
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