THE EVOLUTION OF DOA

[Fred Campbell]

How the rules have changed over the years.
My name is FRED CAMPBELL. And in this day and age where almost every DOA player worships MASTER, SWEET REVENGE, and XCALIBUR BLADES.

I'm not sure why you should care. I'm not a celebrity, I'm not the child of a celebrity, I've never been married to, abused by, or provided a kidney to a celebrity.

But I have spent more then 8 years on the national DOA tournament circuit. I've fought DAHLSIM, MASTER, PERFECT LEGEND, SILENT LEGEND, SWEET REVENGE, VANESSA, KASUMI CHAN, BLACK MAMBA, NYYKO, DR DOOG, . . . . . if you can think of them , Good chance I battled them.

And along the way, I have seen a lot of rule Changes over the years.

So Lets go back and take a look at between then and now!

#1 In the old days tournament coordinators never posted the fact that you need to bring your controller. this is a lesson I learned the hard way. So if you plan on attending an offline tournament, BRING YOUR OWN CONTROLLER !

#2 Button checks are now Mandatory. Because back in the old days if you borrowed Somebody's controller you could very quickly learn That not every player uses the same button settings as you!

#3 REGISTRATION TIMES : For years tournament coordinators have had to answer their cell phones and hear that some player was on his or her way and be there in 15 minutes, only to show up an hour and a half later. So unless you have some juice with the higher powers in the community you had better be on time!

#4 PAUSING in the middle of a match : In the old school days if anybody needed to pause for any reason they could do it. I will give you a perfect example. in 2006 DAHLSIM and ICE COLD EDGE were slugging it out for a top 8 spot, when suddenly DAHLSIM told ICE COLD EDGE to pause. after DAHLSIM finished checking his button settings , As soon as ICE COLD EDGE unpaused DAHLSIM immediately Ran and slid at him taking him out with a low sweep.

This event helped evol rule changes to rules # 2 and # 4

#5 THE LIFE BAR: in DOA4 we competed on largest life, But now we use Normal life. But the time limit has always been60 seconds.

#6 TAG MATCHES: A long time ago, we used to have Tag matches where one player could take on two players at a time. Not any more.
Now nearly every offline Tag matches require two players on the same team.

#7 GRAND FINALS : When I won won my first offline tournament, I had to win 4 out of matches 7. it doesn't work like that anymore . Too many high level players thought it took too long. So they dropped it to 3-5!

So it has Been a long time , But a lot of changes have been made to the rules to offline DOA tournaments!

 

[Tenren]

Rule will change as doa becomes more main stream. If you want the game at major they will have to change.

1) all major have always bring your own wired controller rule posted. It easier and cheaper for the TO. Also wired. This comes from EVO a long time ago when someone paused the screen on a finals

2)Button check at major have always been mandatory. Its not due to borrowing someones controller but who used the console before you may have used different setup on the layout

3)Major have always had a registration time. Even at SCR I told and told everyone to get registered on time. Alex is cool enough to let some in last min but if you showed after the event started you were ass'd out. There was even a big issue with Chirs G showing up late to marvel. That brought up the problem with Big name player able to pretty much get free buys or their bracket fixed on SRK. Fact is it will prolly never change.

4)See (1&2) -Pausing at majors has and will always be a no no. At your run of the mill small backyard tournament it may fly but at a major it wont. That is a loss.

5)The life bar was high in 4 and normal in 5. Because they have the same amount of health.

6)People want to have an even 2v2 tag match. No matter how you look at it 1v2 tag isnt fair. The one player will always know when he will tag and have his combo ready. While the 2 have to communicate slowing their play down

7) Its not just top player. Its a proven fact, it does take to long. With tournaments getting larger we don't have time we once did. The community wanted 3-5. The same way UMvC players wanted more rounds.

 

[d3v]

#4 PAUSING in the middle of a match : In the old school days if anybody needed to pause for any reason they could do it. I will give you a perfect example. in 2006 DAHLSIM and ICE COLD EDGE were slugging it out for a top 8 spot, when suddenly DAHLSIM told ICE COLD EDGE to pause. after DAHLSIM finished checking his button settings , As soon as ICE COLD EDGE unpaused DAHLSIM immediately Ran and slid at him taking him out with a low sweep.

Pausing has always been grounds for a forfeit in every other fighting game that was run on console (aside from DOA it seems). This is why, when they started having people from the FGC design controllers for fighting games (i.e. @MarkMan from MadCatz), one of the features that was added was a lock switch for Start.

 

[LunaKage]

Pausing being allowed in a tournament? I've never heard of this, I mean I suppose you've been around for about 3 more years than I have, but I'd think after being in the tournament scene for a couple different fighting games for 6 years, I would have heard something like that.