The Dead or Alive 6 World Championship kicked off in Lyon, France at The Mixup 2019 with XcaliburBladeZ taking home the prized belt defeating Gehaktbal in Grand Finals. This tournament was a great reminder to the FGC that DOA6 is a true offline experience and is at its best in an esports environment. Top 8 was full of surprises and clutch fights, but the game also shined in pools where players like Bonus Stage, Bram's and Dr. Impact floored everyone spectating.
Since DOA6 released last month, young BladeZ has won 7 events with 5 of them being consecutive NLBC victories. Now that players are becoming more familiar with the new system, it will be interesting to see how many more professional and newcomers alike start attending these big events to attempt throwing off this nearly unstoppable beast. If you don't want to watch this prize fighter win every event, study and plan to be at one of these various tournaments for the World Championship.
Top 8: @XcaliburBladeZ @Ky-Dragon @Gehaktbal @Rikuto @Bonus Stage @Dr. Impact @Bram @Croute Chef
Top 8 Highlights
Gehaktbal vs Rikuto
Gehaktbal has always had a wide range of characters to select, but he hasn't really used Bass prior to DOA6 where the character now has extremely effective setups for the damage he can get out of them. It's always a refreshing experience to see two skilled players use heavy-weight characters fighting offline and this FT3 didn't disappoint. Back and forth action with Rikuto being the more aggressive player and Gehaktbal poked at his pressure like the expert he is.Gehaktbal vs Rikuto
Rikuto had a notable moment at the 'Road Rage' stage getting a combo utilizing both exploding cars with the wall hit at the end. He also put on some great pressure with his combo throws, but Gehaktbal was countering for big damage on top of frustrating Rikuto with his spacing and pokes to get the win in this close and patient set.
Croute Chef vs Bonus StageBonus Stage has been playing DOA offline for a while now, and you can see from his play style with Nyo-Tengu that he has more options than ever before with the new system mechanics. Formerly calling himself, Alucardo, this experienced fighter does a great job of nailing all of his opponents with that wind blast close hit, and is great following up after his opponent bounces off the ground from the Hiten punch string option. He's also very good at using Nyo-Tengu's offensive holds, but he didn't seem to utilize the guaranteed follow-up from 66T against the wall, instead he hoped to get advantage or the hit from 6K.
Croute Chef put up the best fight he could, and he was really doing a fine job of completing his combos and came up with some good mixups for his overall game. Croute Chef is another player that's really smart with his spacing and doesn't mind a slow fight. Bonus Stage won this set because he was good at closing the space with his ability to know when to OH and waited for his best damage options outside of that.
Dr. Impact vs Bram's
It seems that Bram met his match against Diego, but his Lisa is really on point. Despite the pressure, he remained comfortable and got some great BT combos and took the time to space when he needed to or saw an opportunity to. Bram really started to improve in the last few rounds of the last game, but Dr. Impact was able to overcome him with fast plays and a surprise Break Blow to complete the set.
XcaliburBladeZ vs Ky-DragonThe FT3 started with BladeZ picking Hitomi, and Ky-Dragon was careful and damaging enough to get a huge early win on him. BladeZ quickly changed to Eliot, but he cracked under pressure at the Zero lab level and he was picked apart by beautiful strings and perfect reads from the proven Kasumi expert to get another big win. Things started getting really insane after this match because the random filter glitch on 'A.P.O.' kept that level going for 2 additional games.
BladeZ at this point was getting extremely nervous because Ky-Dragon was beating the hell out of him, and whenever Kasumi had a ceiling available, she was going for that launch throw to get the additional damage and free launch off the ground. When Eliot started taking control of Kasumi, Ky-Dragon started waiting for BladeZ to enter ceiling territory so he could fish for his launch throw, but BladeZ was not easily taking the bait.
The random glitch allowed these players to become very familiar with the stage and because of it we were seeing mind games that we've never seen before in the DOA franchise. When BladeZ was allowed an opening he took it, and because the corridors favor Eliot's free flowing movement he was able to make a comeback on Ky-Dragon and won one of the best sets we've seen yet in DOA6s short history.
Rikuto vs Bonus StageRikuto and Bonus Stage are both very good at using Offensive Holds, especially near the wall, but Rikuto used them for nearly the entire match at 'APO' whether it was the combo DDT or a recycled tackle on the wall, the strategy was a successful one at first. When they switched to 'Lost Paradise' for the second game, Bonus Stage had more space to be defensive against Bayman and he blocked most of what Rikuto dished out and then Bonus responded with P+K to open him up before he could dish out more to eventually win game 2.
After losing a match, Rikuto switched to Hitomi and the rounds were still incredibly close. At 'Showdown' Bonus did a great job of following up his bounce combos into the crowd assist to keep the damage going up on Hitomi. Bonus held his ground with great blocks and mixups throughout this entire set. Nyo's ground grabs and additional punish options make her a better character in DOA6 than she was ever capable of being in DOA5, and it's great to see Bonus Stage showcase that with an incredible victory over Rikuto.
Ky-Dragon vs Dr. Impact Diego hasn't been seen a lot in offline tournaments yet, but Dr. Impact has been showing people why they might want to consider the character if they prefer rushing down their opponents with tremendous and thunderous blows. "The uncrowned King" might seem like he's missing something because of the small advantage he has on guard breaks and a limited move pool compared to Kasumi, but Impact proves that it doesn't matter when you have a unique combat approach.
Impact didn't get a single game on Ky-Dragon, but he still did a great job of fuzzy guarding and mixing up his start ups against the much faster Kasumi. Ky-Dragon kept distance from Diego when he needed to and waited for a whiff so he could launch throw into a combo that he hoped would end in a close hit near the wall.
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