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From Frieza to the Finals: How Dragon Ball FighterZ united Evo
Dragon Ball FighterZ made its Evo debut and it was bigger than anyone would have expected. We were on the floor to chat with players and catch all the action as it went down.
With a last minute, rule-abiding side switch between Dominique ‘SonicFox’ McLean and Goichi ‘GO1’ Kishida, McLean absolutely decimated Kishida to take the crown as the Evo 2018 Dragon Ball FighterZ champion.
The match was the most exciting thing to come out of this year's tournament, with a bracket reset, drama over the rules and McLean’s trademark shenanigans all making the crowd go absolutely bananas. In fact, this win puts McLean one step closer to being the best all-around fighting game player in the world – something many consider an achievement he’s already obtained.
Few were disappointed by the outcome, even if it turned out as everyone predicted. Most players knew that the grand finals would come down to these two titans clashing in an epic fashion, continuing their well-established rivalry.
The finals may have been some of the craziest action that casual and serious fans may have seen in recent memory, but an even bigger achievement that Dragon Ball FighterZ helped achieve at this EVO was bringing the community closer together.
A community spirit bomb
It’s not often that a game’s first year at Evo takes centre stage. Dragon Ball FighterZ is a rare example of a game that’s so popular that it managed to practically outshine Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and Super Smash Bros. Melee in a year where those brackets were astoundingly popular – it was the most entered game at this year’s event; surprising for a game that’s only been out since January.
“Dragon Ball FighterZ has made Evo even bigger this year,” Steve ‘SuperNoon’ Carbajal, who finished in the Top 8, tells us. “It’s been so hectic: so many new faces have come up to me and say that they know me from FighterZ – it’s wild.”
The Dragon Ball FighterZ pools ahead of the main event were constantly surrounded by a crowd of people, which was a stark contrast from the Super Smash Bros. Wii U and Melee pools that mainly heard cheers when big names came onto the event floor. Clearly, for DBFZ fans, the hype is real.
Top players from several other communities have either made the switch to FighterZ or are adding it to their repertoire on top of other games that they play too. “A lot of anime players are getting a new game to shine in”, says Chad Lake, who placed 25th in the tournament. “Arc System has made the first serious team fight, anime-oriented game in a long time.”
Even at the most premier tournament in the world, FighterZ was able to break through plenty of typical molds because of its anime roots – the popularity of Akira Toriyama’s classic show is widespread, and lends itself perfectly to a competitive fighting title. While many other niche anime fighting games are shifted over to the fringes at Evo in side tournaments, the popularity of Dragon Ball has elevated FighterZ to a completely different playing field, and its tag-system is helping to fill a Marvel vs. Capcom-sized hole in the community, too.
Characters like Kid Buu and Cell are popular for their versatility and are usually found in team compositions, but many players across the weekend had diverse teams that only contained one of those few hallmark characters that you see the best play as, filling out the rest with their childhood favourites.
“Everyone watched Dragon Ball as a kid,” Carbajal said. “Characters like Cell and Kid Buu are on most teams, but players still make their favourite ones work on top of that. The pools are incredibly diverse like that.”
Cooler, announced at Evo, is the latest roster addition
© Bandai Namco
It's perfect practice for the World Tour
Evo may have been the biggest fighting game tournament in the world, but it's not part of the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour. Bandai Namco’s current series of international events that culminate with a championship tournament is making waves in the fighting game community, and with its own gimmicks that are tied in with the show, it’s going down a treat – but even without Evo, some players like Carbajal look at the Vegas event as a chance to practice for these official events.
“It’s not a World Tour event right now, but its still huge,” Carbajal added. “It’s a great opportunity to put in time against other top players who come from across the globe, something that isn’t possible elsewhere.”
Many players, developers and fans consider Evo a place to celebrate the best competitors while looking to the future of the community. In fact, Arc System Works revealed that the classic Dragon Ball character Cooler would be coming to the game alongside the other two existing additions in August, Base Goku and Base Vegeta. And judging by the worldwide reactions to the grand finals, the community can’t wait for more.
“I’d like to see some more balance patches, some reworks,” Lake says. “Plus there are a ton of unexplored characters that they haven’t touched yet – it’s such an open field.” The biggest expected change is how the development team deals with the top tier characters like Kid Buu and Cell.
“Arc System Works games have always had a sort of wonky balance,” Carbajal said. “We’ll see if they try to bring some of those top characters down a bit or if they try and bring other characters up to match that level.”
Whatever happens with new characters, balance and new content, Dragon Ball FighterZ has a bright future with the casual following it’s collected and the hardcore fighting game community alike. It’s quite possible that it moves to the primetime slot for next year if it can truly dethrone Street Fighter in popularity.
“Dragon Ball FighterZ is basically the Super Smash Bros. of anime, and that was abundantly clear at Evo this year,” Lake said. “It’s the most excited I’ve ever been at a fighting game tournament and a ton of new blood will be jumping back in after it wraps.”
