Dead or Alive 3 & Dead or Alive 6 both made appearances at NEC 23, but unfortunately, they were not on the official streams for the game at one of Big E's biggest tournaments of the year. Thankfully, Matt Ponton came in with the "grass roots camera save" and because of that the community can witness DOA3's Top 4 plus one hour of DOA6 matches. If these videos are uploaded to any other social platform we will include the videos, but as of now they are exclusively on Free Step Dodge's Twitch. Please also consider subscribing to Matt Ponton's Official Twitch for even more Team NINJA content as well as solid gaming for other games by our FSD Founder.
Matt Ponton started things off with Scarlett Rev in a FT3 that was a very one-sided match in Ponton's favor. Bass destroyed Scarlett's Hayabusa with insane wall-damage, ground tech and free air throws off of 6 H+K bounce. As always, it's impressive to see a display of destruction to this magnitude; especially considering that Scarlett is a great player. The only person that might be able to dethrone Ponton that I can think of is his long-time friend Rikuto.
Scarlett continues to fight with Hayabusa against the underrated and I would say underestimated Fight Club Hubbs. Hubbs has excellent patience in this set, and his ability to crush Hayabusa's moves with Ayane was on full display in opening fights of this FT3. As soon as Scarlett adapted, Hubbs made a switch to Genfu which benefited him greatly in the coming stages; perfectly utilizing slip stuns with 1P while also playing a respectable zoning game. Hubbs earned his way to the final, but overall, his set with Scarlett was remarkable and fun to watch.
For the final set, Ponton played Jann Lee; and while I wondered if he was just drawing names out of a hat, it didn't seem like it mattered much regardless. Ponton obliterated Hubbs & Kasumi from the start with wall resets that generated some salt within Hubbs and some perfectly executed Dragon Gunner's to boot. Hubbs switched to Ein and cranked up his masterful defense and zoning techniques. Ponton worked Hubbs out of his defense with mix-ups and high-volume pressure; but Hubbs started scouting Dragon Gunner and getting offense in before he was bitterly defeated by Ponton.
Ponton now holds the record for most Dead or Alive 3 tournaments won in our archive and he also sets the records for most consecutive tournament wins now standing at 5 in a row. My advice to the community is show interest, keep playing DOA3, and if you want to know where you stand seek out Ponton who is without doubt the gold standard of this near-perfect 3D fighter.
The Dead or Alive 6 tournament was won by BBoyDragon who has been on a bit of a tournament streak and when he's not dancing; he appears to be annihilating his opponents with NiCO and the rest of his DOA crew. We got to witness gameplay from tournament familiars: Buck Shot & Zero plus we were treated to some character variety within that hour timeframe. Some truly excellent gameplay from: Bayman, Rachel, NiCO and Hitomi. Wait, no ninjas present this time? I'm shaking from happiness.
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