The Eyes of Project Bokuho: Dead or Alive In Dallas 11 and The Absolute Experience

Another Great Weekend, Another Great Tournament Story to Tell
It's was that wonderful time of year again. A time where DOA players from different cities, states, and maybe even countries, gather at a special annual event. A time where they can get hype and enjoy playing the game they know and love.
Before the "YEEEEEAAAAAAHH!!!" and "I GOT A BAAALD HEAD!!" moments, before my everyday lust for chow mein and double orange chicken at Panda Express, let us go back to the beginning of the story. Ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about Dead or Alive in Dallas 11.

I arrived there at around 9:15-9:30 in the morning just to get myself checked-in early, feeling more and more psyched as I headed towards the grand ballroom. I met up with Tboy and Bboy Dragon--whom were about to play their matches in Mortal Kombat X--and eventually got to reunite with Logan Pitt aka "Fyre Necromancer." At this rate, all of us were quite eager to get some DOA casuals going. Since the tournament was going to start at 2:00PM--and with not a single DOA setup to be found--we decided to head over to Logan's room, bring his copy of the game to the ballroom, and solve this issue ourselves. At around 1:00 in the afternoon, we began began playing casuals as well as checking the brackets to see who our opponents are. Throughout the entire hour, I talked with everyone, sharing laughs until it was time for our tournament to start, and for me to face my first opponent, Mz h0oDLeSs TK.


Let The Games Begin.
On my first match, I was extremely nervous and made plenty of mistakes as a result. I kept using unsafe strings, as well as not taking advantage of the Bokuho stance and back-turned attacks more often. Another couple of mistakes that I have made include: Not punishing appropriately, and the lack of holding. Because of these mistakes, including tournament nerves, I was sent to the losers bracket.

Later that day, my second match was against Tboy. At the start of our match, my tournament nerves slowly began to disappear. I felt a little better as the in-game clock started going, but I kept repeating the same mistakes as last time: Throwing out unsafe moves, using launchers at the wrong time, and not taking advantage of punishing. My nerves were gone but I was too careless, and I was eliminated because of that. Looking back at the matches now, I still have a lot to improve on, especially overcoming the nerves.


Hype, Hype, and More Hype
Words cannot physically express how many moments in which myself, as well as everyone there, just got off our seats started screaming our lungs out from hysteria. There were moments so epic that watching it via livestream from home simply wouldn't do it justice. You had to see it in person, UP CLOSE, with your very OWN eyes. The first example would be the match between E-Mann and Shazz. All of us were just plain excited to witness Ein in action, period. It was so rare to see him being used in tournaments. Strike after strike, and kick after kick, our shouting just got louder and louder.

Another match I would like to mention, that made us turn up the noise, is between Perfect Legend and Dallaz. Hayate and Leon--a character well known to invent the definition of brutality in the 5th degree--duking it out on one best stages in the game itself, Scramble. Seriously, if that match isn't on your list of definitions for "hype," then I don't know what is.

There are a lot more matches that I would love to add in this story, but I think one more should be enough. That would be the grand finals. Once Jacky Bryant popped on the character select screen, all of us knew exactly how hype things were about to be. Every single word that he said, and I mean every word, we started making noise. Every time when he shouted "YEAAAAAAHHH!!!," we shouted it as well. Sure it might have gotten everyone else's attention, but we didn't give a s**t. We were having the time of our lives. After all, It's Jacky. Who wouldn't want to shout?

Closure
I had a wonderful time at the tournament. It's a blessing to catch up with some familiar faces--as well as getting to know new ones--in a wonderful atmosphere while playing the game we all know and love. After over ten years of Dead or Alive In Dallas hype, let's all continue get hype for next year's DID event, and future DIDs to come. Remember the very important saying DOAers, because it's who we are...

Honorable shoutouts:
Emmanuel "Master" Rodriguez - Giving the DOA community in DFW over ten years DID hype and shenanigans.
Team Ninja - For simply creating Dead or Alive in the first place, we love you guys.
Matt Kieffer - The D.I.D. champion
Ed Thomas aka "Salty Mayhem" and Versus Gameplay staff
UDLR | SRM h0oDLesS
UGS BBoy Dragon BAN
M-C-Static
VGP NASHFAN
Greg Falls
Fyre Necromancer
Dallaz
T Boy303
shazzmatazzles
Smoda
Perfect Legend
Coldpieceaj
S.M.N. Fly
Mz h0oDLeSs TK
Jonah
Space
Chuks