News Team NINJA DOA5 Tournament Support Comes to an End

A year ago at the Battle Royal 2016 finals Team NINJA Creative Director Tom Lee said, "Next year's Battle Royal event will be an event you don't want to miss." As the year went on, members in the community couldn't help but wonder due to the intonation of Tom's speech if something big was planned or if it was just generic hype for a year long event filled with amazing competitive matches.

The journey to the Battle Royal 2017 finals was eventful, filled with upsets from South Killy defeating XCalibur BladeZ at Final Round, previous Battle Royal 2015 winner JC Akira taking the EVO Japan Pre-tournament, XCalibur BladeZ getting his run-back on Battle Royal 2016 winner Rikuto at Summer Jam 11, Hoodless finally taking the win after his die-hard training at The Fall Classic, and Snow defeating previous European champion Gehaktbal at the Republic of fighters.

The world's eyes were on Team NINJA as we rolled into NEC18 for the Battle Royal 2017 World Finals event. A day before the event they posted on twitter and Facebook that the team would have an announcement after the finals. Coupled with Tom Lee's comments at the previous Battle Royal finals, gaming news sites and fans around the world began to speculate an announcement of Dead or Alive 6 to be given. Especially due to the previous announcement of new DLC content for DOA5 ending in 2017.

After the finals, Tom Lee took the stage with community manager Emmanuel Rodriguez and aired a "message from the team." In the message, Team NINJA's brand manager Yosuke Hayashi thanked everyone for their continued support of Dead or Alive, including a specific shout out to tournament organizer Eric "Big E" Small of Big E Gaming. Hayashi went on to state that their support for Dead or Alive 5 is now at an end, "but the Dead or Alive team is very active.". This line was the closest to a Dead or Alive 6 announcement that the video gave. The remaining video had Art Director Yuta Saito and Game Director Yohei Shimbori talk about their passion both for fighting games and for Dead or Alive, and also gave thanks to those who have helped pull off such amazing tournaments over the past five years. As a competitor himself, Saito enjoys watching the players play the game and have exciting competitive matches. Shimbori talked about his passion for fighting games, and while the DOA5 support has come to an end, he expressed his excitement in seeing everyone again someday.

After the video finished, another short but emotional video was shown giving spotlight to our own community's dear Christopher "NinjaCW" Harris who passed away last year due to heart complications. Tom Lee took to the mic, after a pause of reflection on NinjaCW's goals and aspirations for this community, to tell how Tom came to be a part of not only the Dead or Alive community, but the Fighting Game Community as a whole.

Since the event wasn't a Trade Show, or some Game Convention, but a tournament event, this video package had a specific audience. Throughout the video Hayashi, Saito, and Shimbori are talking directly to the competitive players in attendance. They directly refer to Big E as a tournament organizer. This was not a sending off for the DOA series, but a big thank you from the team for all of the support the competitive community has done in the past five years in showing why DOA5 can be put up there as one of the best fighting games.

So in the end, the message that we should be taking from this video is that Team NINJA wants to continue working on Dead or Alive 6whatever game the Dead or Alive team is currently working on, and for us to please be patient for the time when that game is ready to be revealed. That reveal date could be as close as E3, or it might be longer. There is no way we will know until Team NINJA feels it's ready to be shown off and probably at an event fitting its debut.

There will continue to be Dead or Alive 5 Last Round tournaments next year, just none being sponsored by Team NINJA themselves. The only ones who can kill DOA5LR is the community itself. It's tournament scene survives only due to your passion, participation, and attendance. If you don't want it to end, keep showing up to tournaments and events, and continue to promote the game that you love to play. We have Kumite in Tennessee going on in January, the next Winter Brawl (Pennsylvania) in February, and Final Round (Georgia) in March. So there's still plenty of competitive events for us to enjoy in the coming year.

wearefighters.png
 
Good read. I was obviously saddened that nothing new was announced, but I’m optimistic that the team is hard at work on something. Going to continue to show my love and support for DOA. Hoping to still to still see a tournament scene, too.
 
The game will go on strong but Team Ninja threw us a wrench getting our hopes up only to crush it. I myself will take a much needed break but i appreciate the courage. This post did give me a little hope going forward.
 
Thank you for this post @Mr. Wah, I might not have the money nor time right now but I'll definitely try to show up for tournaments in the future once I deem myself good enough. I love DOA, I met so many people through this game, and I'm thankful that Team Ninja gave me the opportunity to meet so many people.

After that stunt of Sunday I admit I was pissed and I understand that other people are pissed but don't stop supporting the game you love because a sequel wasn't shown. I did expect DOA6 to be shown but in the end we the community hyped each other up, Team Ninja never said that they would create a DOA6, we told each other that DOA6 would be shown.

DOA is more than a game for me, it's my passion, I've never played a game so much as DOA. I hope players will return to DOA despite 6 not being announced and still having a bad net code.
 
You don’t have to be good enough to travel necessarily. Some people are an exception because they may have been playing a long time; long enough to actually play through events & win. I was terrible at each game that I played, but I went anyway to get advice & match experience. Got better each time that I went besides my online matches. Learned how to train properly too. You have to be willing to lose. It’s how you get better.

Tournament play, local offline play, online play; well no matter where you are. You get what you put into fighting games. It requires some soul searching & risk taking. You have to be willing to be vulnerable around people within the environment. You learn faster since people will be willing to help. Sure, always play to win, but you ultimately play to improve & have fun with others.

Also good read.
 
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Won't lie, I'm kinda glad they're finally stepping back. I'm presuming much of the team that was committed to Square for Dissidia is returning for reallocation now. That management wants the remaining team to move on from the last DoA product and engine is relieving. They've been milking this iteration for so long now, and piling so much attention onto the service-driven side games, that I was worried they wouldn't be bothering with a 6th mainstream title, and would focus on third-party contracts.

Let's hope Dissidia sells well, and justifies the time they've spent away from their own IPs.

Don't get me wrong - the tournament support was great, but there's plenty of games that survive in the tournament scene, despite their developers moving on. DoA5 will do just fine until the next instalment hits.

Thanks for posting this, Wah.
 
I am late as usual. But thank you, I was devastated. DOA is my everyday life, it has been a part of me. I will continue playing DOA whether from the old games, DOA5LR or the Xtreme games. And I am glad that there are still some DOA tournaments to join. I will do my best.

Also, @King Anubis just said what I would say too haha.
 
A year ago at the Battle Royal 2016 finals Team NINJA Creative Director Tom Lee said, "Next year's Battle Royal event will be an event you don't want to miss." As the year went on, members in the community couldn't help but wonder due to the intonation of Tom's speech if something big was planned or if it was just generic hype for a year long event filled with amazing competitive matches.

The journey to the Battle Royal 2017 finals was eventful, filled with upsets from South Killy defeating XCalibur BladeZ at Final Round, previous Battle Royal 2015 winner JC Akira taking the EVO Japan Pre-tournament, XCalibur BladeZ getting his run-back on Battle Royal 2016 winner Rikuto at Summer Jam 11, Hoodless finally taking the win after his die-hard training at The Fall Classic, and Snow defeating previous European champion Gehaktbal at the Republic of fighters.

The world's eyes were on Team NINJA as we rolled into NEC18 for the Battle Royal 2017 World Finals event. A day before the event they posted on twitter and Facebook that the team would have an announcement after the finals. Coupled with Tom Lee's comments at the previous Battle Royal finals, gaming news sites and fans around the world began to speculate an announcement of Dead or Alive 6 to be given. Especially due to the previous announcement of new DLC content for DOA5 ending in 2017.

After the finals, Tom Lee took the stage with community manager Emmanuel Rodriguez and aired a "message from the team." In the message, Team NINJA's brand manager Yosuke Hayashi thanked everyone for their continued support of Dead or Alive, including a specific shout out to tournament organizer Eric "Big E" Small of Big E Gaming. Hayashi went on to state that their support for Dead or Alive 5 is now at an end, "but the Dead or Alive team is very active.". This line was the closest to a Dead or Alive 6 announcement that the video gave. The remaining video had Art Director Yuta Saito and Game Director Yohei Shimbori talk about their passion both for fighting games and for Dead or Alive, and also gave thanks to those who have helped pull off such amazing tournaments over the past five years. As a competitor himself, Saito enjoys watching the players play the game and have exciting competitive matches. Shimbori talked about his passion for fighting games, and while the DOA5 support has come to an end, he expressed his excitement in seeing everyone again someday.

After the video finished, another short but emotional video was shown giving spotlight to our own community's dear Christopher "NinjaCW" Harris who passed away last year due to heart complications. Tom Lee took to the mic, after a pause of reflection on NinjaCW's goals and aspirations for this community, to tell how Tom came to be a part of not only the Dead or Alive community, but the Fighting Game Community as a whole.

Since the event wasn't a Trade Show, or some Game Convention, but a tournament event, this video package had a specific audience. Throughout the video Hayashi, Saito, and Shimbori are talking directly to the competitive players in attendance. They directly refer to Big E as a tournament organizer. This was not a sending off for the DOA series, but a big thank you from the team for all of the support the competitive community has done in the past five years in showing why DOA5 can be put up there as one of the best fighting games.

So in the end, the message that we should be taking from this video is that Team NINJA wants to continue working on Dead or Alive 6whatever game the Dead or Alive team is currently working on, and for us to please be patient for the time when that game is ready to be revealed. That reveal date could be as close as E3, or it might be longer. There is no way we will know until Team NINJA feels it's ready to be shown off and probably at an event fitting its debut.

There will continue to be Dead or Alive 5 Last Round tournaments next year, just none being sponsored by Team NINJA themselves. The only ones who can kill DOA5LR is the community itself. It's tournament scene survives only due to your passion, participation, and attendance. If you don't want it to end, keep showing up to tournaments and events, and continue to promote the game that you love to play. We have Kumite in Tennessee going on in January, the next Winter Brawl (Pennsylvania) in February, and Final Round (Georgia) in March. So there's still plenty of competitive events for us to enjoy in the coming year.

wearefighters.png
I agree. I haven't played the game much but I still like it. Take a look at the Smash Melee community for example. Especially for that being a gamecube game and they still play it and look how big its gotten and its even in EVO so that should say something. If DOA community keeps showing dedication then that game will be fine.
 
Won't lie, I'm kinda glad they're finally stepping back. I'm presuming much of the team that was committed to Square for Dissidia is returning for reallocation now. That management wants the remaining team to move on from the last DoA product and engine is relieving. They've been milking this iteration for so long now, and piling so much attention onto the service-driven side games, that I was worried they wouldn't be bothering with a 6th mainstream title, and would focus on third-party contracts.

Let's hope Dissidia sells well, and justifies the time they've spent away from their own IPs.

Don't get me wrong - the tournament support was great, but there's plenty of games that survive in the tournament scene, despite their developers moving on. DoA5 will do just fine until the next instalment hits.

Thanks for posting this, Wah.
Why not keep up the fanservice driven side games?
 
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