Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate: Competitive Outlook

Dead or Alive has been in the competitive fighting game scene for quite a long time. Dead or Alive 4 was featured in the World Cyber Games and Championship Gaming series. Dead or Alive 5 hasn’t fared as well on the eSports front after the IGN Pro League was purchased by Blizzard before any fighting game events were run (which would have included DOA5). However, it has performed better on the community-run circuit than any previous title in the series.

As the release of Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate swiftly approaches, fans of the series may be wondering if the tournament love will continue. As best we can tell, the answer is a resounding yes. The last major community-run event for the original DOA5 will be GVN Summer Jam 7, August 17-18 in Philadelphia, PA. In addition to being the final event for the original DOA5, Team Ninja will also have Ultimate on-hand for the competitive community to play.

Following Summer Jam, the first DOA5 Ultimate major will be The Fall Classic (TFC), taking place September 13-15 in Raleigh, NC. As the first big event for Ultimate, the turnout is expected to be big. The first major for the original game featured nearly 50 competitors, with TFC hoping to double that number.

The tournament momentum won’t stop after The Fall Classic. Expect the two biggest tournaments on the east coast, Northeast Championships (NEC) and Final Round to host DOA5 Ultimate tournaments in December and March respectively. NEC takes place in Philadelphia, while Final Round calls Atlanta its home. If you’re into other big fighting games, both of these tournaments should feature the best players for all the hottest fighting games. There are also indications that Ultimate will show up at GVN Winter Brawl in February 2014, also in Philadelphia.

If you live on the west coast, you may be wondering why all of the big DOA events seem to be on the other side of the country. Fear not, the original DOA5 was featured at SoCal Regionals and NorCal Regionals earlier this year in Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s certainly not out of the question to expect at least one of these tournaments to feature Ultimate in 2014. 

The big question on everyone’s mind is Evolution (Evo). The largest fighting game tournament in the world skipped out on Dead or Alive this year in fear that the players would not travel for their game. However, after a decent series of tournaments in 2013, if the players come out to support Ultimate at TFC, NEC and Final Round, there’s a strong possibility the game will be featured at Evolution as well. So if you’d like to see Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate on the main stage at Evo, head out to these tournaments and show your support. They’re all community-run events, so player participation is important.

If you’re a competitive Dead or Alive player, you’ll have tournaments to attend every other month between the September release of the game and March 2014. There are plenty of smaller tournaments that will crop up between now and then as well, so keep a close eye out and make sure you travel whenever you can if you want to see DOA5 Ultimate at Evolution.