Dragon Ball Z stories
Kumite in Tennessee 2019 results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
We've just barely entered the new year, and we already have a slew of events upon us.
Kumite in Tennessee is one of them, and as you'd expect, it's taking place in Tennessee — more specifically, Franklin, Tennessee.
With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Tekken 7 both having over 100 entrants, and Soul Calibur 6, Dragon Ball FighterZ and Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition all being above 50 entrants each, respectively, this is going to be a pretty loaded event.
The games being played besides the aforementioned five are BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Injustice 2, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Mortal Kombat XL, King of Fighters 14, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Killer Instinct and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2.
Some of the notable players attending include Lil Majin, Disrupt|Shadow20z, BC|Biohazard, CuddleCore, SB|JB, W2W|KnowKami, Neon, Pokchop, BC|HoneyBee, MnT|Trungy, SperoGin, KoDee, TS|Arturo Sanchez and of course many more beyond that.
Streaming is being done at Team Spooky, VG Boot Camp, NYC Furby, HXC Gaming Events and TNEA Live.
Smash Conference United results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
Smash Conference United is happening this weekend in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
This is mainly a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate event, for which the tournament has almost 350 entrants, but there are a bunch of other games being played as well.
The event also features Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. 64, Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition, Tekken 7, Soul Calibur 6, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Guily Gear Xrd REV 2, Under Night In-Birth EXE: Late[st] and Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Besides this, it will also houst Doubles events for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Some of the players set to attend include Tempo|ZeRo, Liquid|Hungrybox, FOX|MKLeo, FOX|Mew2King, GRV|Dabuz, Liquid|Salem, eU|Samsora, MVD, Myran, Dyr, AMG|8BitMan and many more.
Streaming is being done at MVG League and G-Force Gaming.
AldgerRelpa's depictions of Dragon Ball characters paint them in a very gritty and serious manner — and it's awesome
The Dragon Ball series is known for having a very impressive fan base. Not surprisingly, many of these fans have an artistic talent.
Take Gerald Parel (AldgerRelpa on DeviantArt) for example. This individual was able to depict the Dragon Ball characters in an interesting style.
There's a certain grittiness to these iconic heroes and villains. It paints them in a far more serious tone.
In many of the pictures, the sky is covered with black clouds. You really get the sense that something big is about to go down in a number of these scenes.
Even Android 21 is present in Parel's work. We see her in her human and Majin forms.
Of course, it wouldn't be the Dragon Ball series without a few transformations. Legendary Super Saiyan Broly, Super Saiyan 3 Goku, and more are included. Would they be able to match Hercule and his daughter's epic stances?
Fallen off the cliff, or climbing up it: The biggest changes to the Street Fighter 5 tiers in Season 4 we've seen so far
We've had a good few weeks with the new Street Fighter 5 balance patch now and while there's still plenty to be uncovered, Catalyst and I have a few ideas of which characters saw the most swing either up or down the tier list.
We also have a few reactions to the general state of game play these days, most notably that it seems more and more people are willing to express that they're having fun playing.
Last week's Dragon Ball FighterZ turbulence seems to be en route to remedy as Katsuhiro Harada has become the head of Fighting Game eSports for Bandai Namco, and has pledged that DBFZ will have continued tournament support.
We also chat about the potential of crowdfunding to raise funds eSport prize pools, citing the negative press the Tekken World Tour Finals got after halving their payouts from 2017 to 2018.
It's likely next generation gaming consoles are still a good two years or so out, but the conversation revolving around cross-play is only gaining traction. Will we see this as a staple for the next round of gaming platforms, or are there still roadblocks?
All this and more await in episode 32 of the EventHubs Podcast, so please give it a listen and leave a review to tell us what you think.
Can right holders really prevent Dragon Ball FighterZ from appearing at tournament events? UltraDavid explains the reality of the situation
An unsettling precedent has been plaguing the Dragon Ball FighterZ community recently. It was previously announced by AkSys Games that the Dragon Ball FighterZ event at the Anime Ascension was being cancelled "due to unforeseen circumstances."
Before this, Alex Jebailey had to cancel the Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament at DreamHack Atlanta for reasons other than the entry numbers. He noted that he was not able to publicly disclose exactly why.
Despite the fact that the game is not even a year old, it ended up not appearing in EVO Japan's lineup for 2019. Curiously, Mr. Wizard — a tournament organizer behind EVO — noted a fear that the game might be a "one and done."
While many immediately began to point the finger at Toei Animation, they eventually released a statement on Twitter stating that they had no knowledge as to why Dragon Ball FighterZ tournaments were being prevented. Theories were suggested by community members that it might be one of the other owners of the Dragon Ball franchise.
Could a rights holder really prevent a game from appearing at a tournament like this? There are probably very few people within the fighting game community that would be more qualified to answer this question more than David "UltraDavid" Graham, an attorney.
He recently released an article that tries to explain the reality of the situation. Like most things in law, there are a lot of unexplored gray areas. According to UltraDavid, this has not yet been tested in a court case.
First off, the legality of unauthorized video game tournaments has never been tested in court. One reason for this is that competitive gaming hasn't been important enough to justify long costly legal battles until pretty recently, so courts haven't yet had a chance. But there's a more fundamental cause: the virtually complete consensus among legal experts that rights holders can use their exclusive rights, especially the audiovisual public performance right, to prevent their games from being played in tournaments.
The Pinnacle 2018 Results
Update: This story has been updated with final results.
The Pinnacle 2018 was a tournament that took place in Canada this weekend.
Due to being so close to New Year's, it actually wrapped up on the Saturday.
Although we weren't in time to get a live post up for the event, we decided it'd be fair to have a results post up for it.
Some notable players who competed at this tournament were FOX|Justin Wong, UTGS|CeroBlast, TGS|Captain L, CACAW|BigD, Binchang, HB|ZomBmu, though there were of course many more as well.
Games played at the event included Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Tekken 7, Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition, Dragon Ball FighterZ, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, Soul Calibur 6 and Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2.
Stream archives can be found at The Gaming Stadium, Canadian Joysticks and Mountainside Games.
That giant blue light in the New York City sky was definitely the ending of a Dragon Ball Z battle as demonstrated by BossLogic
It's not everyday we get to see a giant arc of electricity that makes the night sky light up a bright blue, but that's exactly what happened earlier this week in Astoria, Queens for New Yorkers.
The then mysterious lights in the sky brought with it much curiosity before we got an official explanation for the event with many around the internet joking that it could be the work of aliens or the Ghostbusters answering a call... or perhaps even someone turning Super Saiyan Blue.
One image of the lights made it look like a giant beam was reaching across the sky which artist BossLogic decided looked enough like the end to a Dragon Ball Z battle that he went to work to turn it into one.
Inserted into the New York skyline were Perfect Cell and Gohan in a recreation of their final Kamehameha clash and the villains destruction at the hands of the teen hero.
BossLogic made it so that Gohan was placed at the end of the light trail with the beam seemingly coming out of his hand as his one-handed Kamehameha blast as Cell can be seen in the middle of the image as he disintegrates above the Big Apple instead of his destroyed Cell games arena.
In reality, the bright lights and loud noises were just made by faulty electrical equipment, but BossLogic showed us a cooler version of Earth that we unfortunately / fortunately don't live in which you can check out in the image below.
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These fancy Dragon Ball FighterZ touch of death combos use 4 level one Supers and starts with zero meter plus feature some nice mods too
Touch of death combos have been around in Dragon Ball FighterZ since probably before the game even released at the start of this year, but they actually popped up outside of the training room with players like TSM|Leffen actually pulling them off in tournament on occasion.
To celebrate the end of 2018 and the first year of Dragon Ball FighterZ's time in the fighting game community, we've found two more impressive touch of death combos that combines many aspects of some of our favorites so far.
DBFZ player DCB|Vato recently uploaded a couple of touch of death combos using the same team of Super Saiyan Goku, Gotenks and Vegito; both of them start out with zero meter and use exactly four level one Supers.
The first one actually impressively starts from mid-screen with Goku where he is able to deal over 7,500 damage before switching out for Gotenks' Kamikaze Ghosts before using said ghosts to pop Frieza back up so Vegito can toss him into his own level one for the finish.
For the second combo, Vato heads to the corner where he is able to continue the combo after landing Vegito's slam down Super where he is then able to land two of Goku's Kamehameha Supers in a row thanks to Gotenks' ghost properties again.
Vato also appears to be playing with some PC mods which has turned Vegito into Super Saiyan Blue Gogeta from the new Dragon Ball Super movie — who probably also has a good shot of making it into the game if DBFZ receives a second season of content — plus has Goku in the blue Frieza soldier-styled armor that Vegeta typically wears along with a handful of other mods. You can check out both impressive combos below.
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Rising NBA star De'Aaron Fox shares his love for Dragon Ball, talks Dragon Ball FighterZ in locker room interview
Assuming he stays healthy, Sacramento Kings point guard De'Aaron Fox will likely become an NBA All-Star and highly recognizable name in the next few years. He's also an avid Dragon Ball fan.
The fighting game community has something of an in in the NBA thanks to Farbod Esnaashari, a writer who covers the LA Clippers for Sports Daily Blog. Esnaashari was able to catch up with Fox for a quick video interview to discuss no basketball, but Dragon Ball.
The 21 year old rising star fits right in with the most devoted of DB fans as he's already seen all of DB Super, watched the recent Broly movie and played Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Esnaashari asks Fox's thoughts on the FighterZ front, to which he replies that the two dimensional fighting game format is cool, but that he "needs more freedom in a DB game," likely referring to 3D format the Budokai titles feature.
The Kings player gives us a bit of insight into the gaming habits of NBA players as well, noting that first person shooters are the more popular genre.
You can view the quick interview (it's just under two minutes long) by clicking the thumbnail below. A big thanks to Farbod Esnaashari for sharing this with us.
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Cell sits at the top despite his nerfs while some big bodies sink to the bottom: Here's how our Dragon Ball FighterZ tiers sit at the end of 2018
Dragon Ball FighterZ quickly became one of the if not the biggest fighting game of 2018 after launching in January of this year where it would go on to break EVO viewership records in its first appearance and earning its own World Tour alongside other Bandai Namco fighters like Tekken 7.
The month of December has raised a few questions about DBFZ's future in the competitive scene due to being left off of EVO Japan's main lineup and having had another tournament cancelled, but Bandai Namco's support of the title is set to continue for it and their other fighters through at least 2019. A second season of content has still yet to be confirmed, however.
To close out 2018, we here at EventHubs are going to be digging through Dragon Ball FighterZ's and the other major titles' tier lists and their current positions going into 2019 where the DBFZ World Tour Finals will be held in January.
As a brand new 3v3 fighter, Dragon Ball FighterZ has seen competitively high placings for the majority of its cast — partially thanks to players like FOX|SonicFox using characters like Nappa and Beerus to show off their potential — though tournaments have essentially been dominated by a handful of character selections that have been strong picks for any teams.
Characters like Cell, Bardock, Android 16, Kid Buu and Adult Gohan have all been seen as dominant forces in the game and have all received nerfs throughout the year to even the playing field a bit while Super Saiyan Vegeta's assist also needed to be toned down.
Unsurprisingly, all five of those previously mentioned characters remain at the top of our tier list which is voted upon by our readers and the community, but there are a number of choices which will likely surprise players.
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Harada states that Dragon Ball FighterZ, Tekken 7 and Soul Calibur 6 will have continued tournament and community support from Bandai Namco
Going into 2019, it was becoming unclear where some of the biggest fighting game titles would stand from community and eSports perspectives with a number of players announcing plans to step back from competition and events having tournaments cancelled or games not showing up on the lineup at all.
Katsuhiro Harada, known as the long-time director and producer for the Tekken series, released an open letter to the fighting game community to address these concerns where he announced that he has become the leader and supervisor of Bandai Namco's Fighting Game eSports Strategy team and that support for all three of their major titles will continue into next year.
Dragon Ball FighterZ, Tekken 7 and Soul Calibur 6 will all feature "as many official tournaments as possible" in 2019 with continued support for smaller / community events according to Harada.
The letter also states that Bandai Namco are also dedicated to finding ways to assist community activities in the future with Harada asking anyone looking to hold a tournament to contact their regional Bandai Namco office.
These statements come after Dragon Ball FighterZ was revealed to have been left off of EVO Japan's main lineup and has had multiple community events cancelled which has EVO's Joey 'Mr. Wizard' Cuellar worried it might be "one and done" for the world's largest FGC event despite DBFZ having the highest viewership peak of EVO 2018.
Many in the community have been pointing towards Toei Animation or perhaps another entity in control of Dragon Ball's rights for the current issues and questions surrounding FighterZ's current competitive status which the prior company has since said they "have no knowledge of" impeding anything in that regard.
You can check out Harada's full letter in the screen-cap below or the text after the jump.
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Why risking nothing in Street Fighter 5 can cost you everything; plus Dragon Ball FighterZ tourney stoppages, Season 4 week one reactions and more
CYG|Daigo can rip Dragon Punches all over the place and be revered as a Street Fighter god, but I do one and everyone calls me scrubby. We delve into the when and why of invincible reversals to try to make sense of this often misunderstood Street Fighter staple.
Catalyst and I also discuss the current issues with Dragon Ball FighterZ tournaments, speculating the source of the event stoppages and whether or not the community reactions that question the game's competitive longevity hold water.
Having had a good week to explore the new balance changes and character in Street Fighter 5's fourth season, I offer some more informed thoughts on Kage, pointing out the good and the bad of playing the character.
Alex, Zangief, Ryu and a few others have been stuck at the bottom of the tier list for a good while now, but it seems as though the FGC may be actually excited to play them now that Capcom has allotted some new tools, could it be we'll be seeing these fighters in tournament finally?
Best Funny and Cool Moments of 2018 released by LiangHuBBB features unending combos, mind boggling mix ups, baffled reactions, and more
January 1st is rapidly approaching. That means that we'll soon be looking back at 2018 as we enter the new year.
LiangHuBBB recently uploaded a compilation that lasts for nearly 27 minutes. Essentially, these are the best "Funny and Cool" moments of 2018 highlighted in one video.
Many games are featured during the video. These include Street Fighter 5, Injustice 2, Street Fighter 4, Soul Calibur 6, Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and more.
As a quick warning, there are a number of hype moments that have some NSFW language in them. Notably, the combos are unending, the mix ups will cause some double takes, the glitches are hilarious, and the everything is stylish.
Of course, there are also the type of moments in fighting games that... can't easily be explained. You really have to see them to believe them.
My personal favorite moment featured showcased SonicSol's reaction to having Falke's bo staff attack whiff punished. While it's a common thing for a character's hurtbox to be attached to their attacks — even if it's a weapon attack — this is hilarious all the same.
Be sure to let us know which moment was your favorite from the video after the jump.
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Toei claims that they don't have any knowledge about the prevention of Dragon Ball FighterZ tournaments
Earlier today, Toei Animation on Twitter mentioned that they were unaware of what was happening in regards to the Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament scene. "Apologies, but we have no knowledge about preventing DBFZ tournaments," they said in response to a statement that pointed the finger towards them.
For those that are unaware, we received the unfortunate news last week that the Dragon Ball FighterZ event at Anime Ascension was being cancelled. Interestingly enough, AkSys Games provided no reasoning behind this outside of "unforeseen circumstances."
This wasn't the first time this had happened this year. Dragon Ball FighterZ was originally planned for DreamHack Atlanta but was cancelled for reasons that could not be publicly disclosed by the tournament organizer. Notably, while the number of registered players was less than 40 at the time, Alex Jebailey stated that he "would never cancel any tournament at an event because of entry numbers."
Despite it being a very popular game throughout 2018, EVO Japan did not list Dragon Ball FighterZ — along with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — as part of its main lineup. MrWiz, a tournament organizer for EVO, expressed a fear that Dragon Ball FighterZ "might be a one and done."
This chain of events is setting an unfavorable trend for the Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament scene. As a result, this has prompted many to point the finger at Toei Animation, one of the main right holders of the Dragon Ball franchise.
UltraDavid, an attorney, hypothesized that the issue potentially could be coming from "some other angle" instead. Some have begun to speculate that the issue is arising because of another rights holder for the series.
We'll be monitoring this situation closely and continuing to update our readers on new developments as they happen.
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'This is the worst case scenario for anyone who is competitively into Dragon Ball FighterZ right now' - Maximilian's thoughts on current DBFZ issues
As the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour is approaching its climax a growing rain cloud seems to have emerged over the competitive scene.
Multiple events have been shut down with little to no articulated reasoning. Many are turning their attention to Japanese animation studio Toei as the most likely motivator for said shut downs.
Maximilian has produced a video wherein he recaps the recent goings on and then offers a handful of his own thoughts on the matter, recalling somewhat similar situations with Nintendo and Super Smash Bros. Melee a few years back.
Max states that he feels the competitive Dragon Ball FighterZ scene is feeling the effects of this in no small way right now, and that the whole ordeal feels very unfortunate considering just how popular a tournament game DBFZ has become.
Indeed even EVO tournament organizer Joey "Mr. Wizard" Cuellar took to Twitter on Friday to say, "It's sad to see what's happening to the DragonBall FighterZ community. It literally might be a one and done," perhaps implying there's a chance we won't see DBFZ return to the fighting genre's biggest recurring major in 2019.
You can give Max's video a watch below and then chime into the comments with your reactions, predictions and general takeaways to this situation.
Another Dragon Ball FighterZ tournament shut down, many in the community are blaming Toei
Earlier today, it was announced by AkSys Games that "due to unforeseen circumstances, Dragon Ball FighterZ will no longer be run at Anime Ascension." No details were given as to why Dragon Ball FighterZ had to be dropped from the event.
Notably, Dragon Ball FighterZ also had to be cancelled at DreamHack Atlanta for undisclosed reasons. According to Alex Jebailey, the fighting game director for the event, the cancellation was not as a result of the entry numbers — which were cited to be less than 40 at the time — but he was unable to publicly speak on the matter.
As you can imagine, many have proclaimed their disappointment regarding this news. It appears that Toei is mostly being blamed for the recent cancellations by many in the community, although there has yet to be any official confirmation that they're actually involved.
MrWiz — one of the EVO organizers — took to Twitter to state that he was sad to see what was happening with the Dragon Ball FighterZ community likely in response to this development. He mentioned a fear that the game might be a "one and done." Strangely, Dragon Ball FighterZ was also absent from EVO Japan's lineup.
Yohosie, a competitor for Dragon Ball FighterZ expressed some frustrations about the development. She noted that this was the second flight she had to cancel and that this trend is "costing [her] money and time."
A digital content producer with over 900,000 YouTube subscribers, D-Piddy, speculated that Toei doesn't believe that they need advertisement for what is likely the most recognizable anime/manga franchise in the world. A lack of monetary compensation could be a possible reason why events are not being allowed to host Dragon Ball FighterZ tournaments.
Ultra David, an attorney, expressed some sympathy for the Dragon Ball FighterZ community. While he mentioned that he did not see any information that explicitly stated this to be the case, he hypothesized that one of the Dragon Ball IP holders could be responsible for the turn of events.
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Sent in by: HoeMuffin, Arrepentido123, and anonymous readers.
Dragon Ball FighterZ Season 2 trailer inbound? Jump Festa 2019 line up lists a potential announcement for Bandai Namco's 3v3 fighter
Bandai Namco may be gearing up for a big Dragon Ball FighterZ announcement in the next couple of days.
The Jump Fest 2019 event is taking place at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan, on December 22nd and 23rd. This annual expo is a celebration of all things manga and anime, and naturally the biggest video game titles based on popular manga / anime will have a presence at the show this week.
An official line up of Bandai Namco's products was released last week by the company showing which console and mobile games will be represented at Jump Festa 2019 and in what capacity. Dragon Ball FighterZ is on the list, and apparently it will not only be playable at the event, but will have a trailer shown for it.
In the past, we've seen Bandai Namco's line ups for trade shows shared this same way, and there have been several instances where "trailer" means a new reveal.
Dragon Ball FighterZ's first season wrapped up back in September with the release of Android 17 and Cooler. They joined Bardock, Broly, Fused Zamasu, Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegito, Base Form Goku, and Base Form Vegeta as the game's first eight DLC characters.
Since then, we've seen a handful of updates, new content such as holiday colors, and a Nintendo Switch release of the game — which took place the day after Android 17 and Cooler dropped. If there were ever a time and place for the next big thing to be revealed for Dragon Ball FighterZ, this week at Jump Festa seems like the perfect spot.
