I still recall the first time I registered at the Dead or Alive Central (DOAC) forums and jumped straight to making a thread to greet myself in the newcomers section. It wasn't a pleasant experience, and I didn't understand the procedure in doing so was to post in the greetings thread. Still, I soldiered on, hoping that amidst the rocky beginning, I'd still be able to make some friends. I had just managed to get all the necessary things to try out DOA2 Ultimate on Xbox Live, having been skeptical about playing fighting games online on a console.
Unfortunately, I arrived late to the scene, as a lot of people had their fill of DOA2U and were occupying themselves with other games (if not fooling around making forum thread "games") until the next anticipated title - Dead or Alive 4 - arrived on the then-next-gen console, the Xbox 360. It wasn't a total loss, however, as there were a few players willing to waste their time playing my scrubby ass throughout November, such as Shinobi558 (a friend I made from the DOATEC forums), Ratiz (Bouncer), HaJin (then called Vidgamer or Tom to avoid confusion with the Hajin currently known in FSD), Amaya Chan, Evil09876, Shad Armstrong, and more notably, The Iron Ninja, who would go out of his way to send me a thoughtful, inspiring PM that I've taken to heart even to this day, and would further push me into wanting to start fresh in a brand new title and learn the game alongside the rest of the community. But given my financial woes at the time, getting an Xbox 360 at out of pocket wouldn't be feasible for another 6 months.
As luck would have it, I managed to get one at launch. And I owed it all to six bottles of Mountain Dew and an act of blind faith. However, due to an unforeseen delay by Team Ninja, there was no way I was going to get DOA4 at launch (or even for Christmas for that matter), so I had to settle for Kameo: Elements of Power, which made me find it pointless to renew my XBL until the game finally came out... 4 days after Christmas. Having exhausted my funds that month, I had to wait until mid-January of 2006 to start playing DOA for real.
At last I'd be able to not only play Christie again... I'd finally be able to play her online with other opponents around the world. At the time, it was a mind-blowing experience, and I found myself getting sucked into it for hours and hours... even moreso than I was with Phantasy Star Online. On the weekend of Valentine's Day in particular, I recall spending the longest time playing online non-stop, as I had the apartment to myself without the interference of my younger sister. New friendships were made, tough opponents were fought, and memorable battle scars were had. Players such as Autoaim (one of my online besties for life), Punishere, AngryWorm, Arnell Long, XDest, ZeonStar, MajinKimimaro, Blackmoon (who I wouldn't see again until 2014 on PS3), Vizierde, Lap, Skatan Milla, Vigaku, EscapingJail, Shad Armstrong, Shinobi558, MedusaX, RiptheJacker, OptimusPrime169 and many others played key parts in my growth as a player early on, making me pay actual attention to applying the most basic fundamentals to get an edge over things I once thought were impossible to get around consistently.
Be that as it may, things were gradually beginning to become a hot mess in the DOAC forums around February. At the time, I didn't fully understand the extent of the problems surrounding DOA4, and was often met with hostility when I tried to speak anything positive on the matter. Tom Brady and the other hotshots of DOA at the time were talking about things I weren't aware of that was hurting the game's credibility as a tournament-viable game, such as literally no frame advantage on any move on block whatsoever, even with guard breaks. But that wasn't all. Sidestepping was useless too, as everything tracked in the game, and all characters had a high and low offensive hold, which was once exclusive to grappler characters. They even went to say that even scrubs with no skill could get out of jail free by spamming holds anywhere, as you could do so even after a wall splat, and there were no stuns that were unholdable after the 4.1 patch.
Even so, I wasn't deterred from continuing to play the game. Though my chances of traveling for a tournament weren't happening anytime soon, I didn't want to let all this enthusiastic time I spent go to waste. So I kept pressing on. Through the matchups, through the temporary community splittings, and even through the drama online and CGS (which I won't go into detail about for the sake of keeping old wounds closed) for the next 2 years. I even had enough backbone to write about strats for Christie despite being an unproven player in many people's eyes and being ridiculed in the process. It was hell, and I went through emotional roller coasters. But every chance I got to go to the local Anime Weekend Atlanta convention, I was there showing off the potential, and though it wasn't much, I was able to convince at least one person a year to get into it and join DOAC, occasionally meeting DOAC members like BlackjDragon and Jakob002, both from Louisiana.
But I really started to notice everything was paying off for me as a player when I put up a damn good fight with Punishere, who back in February of '06 that very Valentine's Day weekend beat me badly within an itch of my own confidence (and probably thought I was a persistent annoying insect who wouldn't quit back then, lol). I remembered it well, as a fellow member named Innovare and I were still hanging around struggling hard as fuck to get a match on him. I had dubbed that day the longest day I ever played DOA online. He was so impressed on how much I improved since then that he wondered why I haven't been going to tournaments, much less be a front-runner for clan battles (which were somewhat still a thing back then).
This, among a chain of other positive events I won't go too much into, gave me the confidence I needed to at least teach one person what I knew. If I wasn't gonna be able to go to tournies much less the CGS, the least I could do was help someone who was going for tryouts. I got my chance with a member of KasumiChan's then all-female themed clan called PMS (who I will not address by name unless otherwise permitted), and went all out the best I could with what I knew. While she didn't quite make the tryouts, she did manage to almost make top 3 in the following NEC tourney for DOA4, placing 5th with Christie. For the first time in my years of playing DOA competitively (or as much as I could with the options I had), I felt like I did something truly meaningful and actually helped someone... and I didn't even know I had it in me.
After CGS went defunct in 2008 and the resurgence of fighting games was on the rise with the upcoming Street Fighter 4 planning to be released in Japanese arcades later that year, I would eventually discover an exceptional gaming scene located somewhere in Lithonia called the Gamers' Xperience. It was relatively small, but its environment was fun, family-friendly, and above all, it had a variety of food joints nearby within walking distance. It was here and in other local tourney venues where I would eventually meet players such as Shidosha (an avid Virtua Fighter 5 player), Aknon (a player from DOAC), RiptheJacker, and finally, Allan Paris one year later following a trip to Final Round.
Although DOA4 was dead to most jaded players eyes, a small glimmer of hope was given when it was announced another DOA game would resurface, but not in the way many have hoped. The Nintendo 3DS was making waves with its unique use of autostereoscopic 3D, and Team Ninja - without the guidance of Tomonobu Itagaki - chose to develop a DOA fighting game for the portable console. While it seemed to be a step back from tradition, Dead or Alive Dimensions assured the community the steps it was taking would be a step in the right direction, inviting a few representatives of the community to give us early glimpses of what to expect. For the first time we had on-screen frame data, a series first for a DOA fighter.
It was then announced that there would not only be a tournament for DOA4 at the longtime Texas DOA major DOA In Dallas (D.I.D.), but for the upcoming DOAD as well. Brimming with confidence in my own play for DOAD, I was willing to go the distance and travel with Allan Paris and his friends to Texas, meeting players like Dallaz, SweetRevenge, Rikuto, Master, Sorwah (Mr.Wah), Swoozie, CyberEvil, Vanessa, and many others. Although we couldn't make the DOAD tourney due to a screwed up mechanism in my car that prevented it from starting, DOA4 was one to remember. In my first tourney I placed 4th in a major, and somehow managed to overcome Master's deadly Hayabusa. Back then, I didn't know how to react to that... and I still don't now. Even so, that did nothing to prevent me from being beaten by Swoozie not once, but twice, which denied me the top 3 spot.
Despite going out for a tourney, I had a lot to learn about planning to travel... a whole lot. Without a GPS, I was nowhere near confident in driving to another state, so I took notes from Allan Paris and since then, it's been paying off way better for me, even though I still can't go to as many tournaments as I would like. Come DOA5 in 2012, the community saw a resurgence again particularly in Georgia, and so the first Georgia Fight Club sanctioned by Allan Paris took place at his house. While this would've been my second tourney outing, I would not ever get the chance to play in an actual match due to a personal matter between my relatives that involved my transportation, which ended up being a waste of my time at the end of the day. However, this would mark the first time I met Fred Campbell in person, as well as Blackwhiteboi, RhythmikDesigns, EDog21, and JDE, who hails from Tennesee in particular.
The events leading up to Final Round in 2013 would mark the second major I went to, and where my internal problems began. Although I was starting fresh with a new game, that also meant dealing with a mostly new, mostly different community... one that wasn't familiar with me at all. I believed that once I did well in my first offline tournament, that no one online would associate me with words like "fraud", "scrub" or "fluke" even if I didn't play up to their expectations online. It also didn't help that this Final Round major was going to be streamed, so I was ten times more afraid than I was at D.I.D. I was afraid that if I didn't do well enough in this tourney, that everything I worked for to get to where I was in good standing with the community would be thrown away on a whim.
I placed 9th, losing poorly to Lopedo on stream and then losing on a clutch to Blackwhiteboi in the losers' brackets. When I continued playing online after that, things went downhill from there (which I won't dwell on too much). And even now, I'm trying to pick myself back up, hoping someday to prove myself once again amidst this pool of new highly-skilled talent.
The last 3 years weren't entirely bad however. In fact there's been plenty of good that came along with it. Some late newcomers from the DOA4 era such as HajinShinobi ended up becoming good friends with me, and at long last, I got to meet one of the oldest friends I made online for the first time, Perfect Shadow. Aka Earlee. Aka Prince Adon. And of course, I can't forget Blackula, Reese2Havik, Gruff757, Immerwolf, BlankOctober, Madain, CJ, and of course, Blackmoon.
One major positive I must mention though, is that I've become more active with an offline scene, albeit little by little. Of the newcomers in my state, I was honored to meet players like KP EpicPayne, KP Juss2Nyce, DrowninMan, Yoyo, and a handful of others. But the most consistent person I got to hang with and develop a close friendship with was NuJin, aka Sho'Nuff, aka Bruce. He may be a bit on the sheltered side, but he's self-confident, has no problem being himself, and always keeps it real. Even now he's still passionate about building the GA fighting game scene with truly creative methods, though with our recent efforts to hype the third Georgia Fight Club event, we got a ways to go and challenges to face head on.
For weeks I've been contemplating on these 10 years I've spent in this community on what I did that mattered. After writing all this and looking at some unexpected personal hardships I had this month, I've come to realize I'm in a crossroads in my life. I could either move to Florida with my mother or remain here and not give up on the scene Bruce and I are trying our best to slowly build. I'm choosing the latter, and here's why.
Upon writing this lengthy blog, I've realized there was some truth to what Fred Campbell told me long ago... I, as a beacon for the relatively small DOA community in Georgia, am needed here.
For too long I've been busy clinging to old memories and grudges, constantly needing to overcompensate and compare myself to others, just to "feel" like I belong with the cool kids. I've dwelled on it for so long that these self-imposed doubts I have feel like second nature to me.
So again, thank you Fred. Thank you Bruce. And thank everyone that's put up with me thus far. Taking the time to write down my memories in the DOA community without the fluff was a good idea. But now there's this. Repairing the car, and moving to a secure spot and landing a secure job in time for January. Wish me luck, and I hope to have even better memorable years with you all in the future.
Until next time, take care of yourselves.
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