Highlights and Low Points from the DBFZ World Tour Finals MadKingMick Follow Feb 15 · 9 min read

Last weekend saw the conclusion to the 2019–2020 Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour in Paris, France. It was a fantastic event all round, with high production values, a great crowd, fast paced high level play and plenty of drama. Here’s some of the key talking points.

Highlights

Tachikawa’s Amazing Run at Finals

Japan’s Tachikawa started his Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals journey bright and early in the 256 Man Last Chance Qualifier and beating France’s Kayne 3–0 in the Grand Final after Kayne initially reset the bracket, with his team of Teen Gohan, GT Goku and Yamcha.

Moving on to the Top 16 Pools, Tachikawa found himself in Group A alongside NYChrisG, Wawa and Maddo. After the first four games everyone found themselves with one win each, meaning the winners of the final two games would go on to Sunday’s Top 8. Tachikawa was up against ChrisG and went on to beat him 2–0 in dominant fashion, finishing off ChrisG’s Frieza with a Wolf Fang Fist.

After doing so well on Saturday Tachikawa had become the French People’s Champion, representing the home crowd and going on to have a fantastic run in Top 8 getting all the way to Loser’s Semi Finals, eliminating ApologyMan along the way before losing 2–1 to eventual Grand Finalist and fellow Japanese player Fenritti. Whilst the crowd and people watching on stream may have been disappointed to see their LCQ hero exit, Tachikawa can hold his head up high and be proud of his performances over the weekend.

Dekillsage Dominates Pools

Having a Top 16 Pools stage might not always be the most conventional thing to do but it does help create some amazing moments and gives everyone a chance to get a few games each. Group C provided a lot of entertainment and amazing moments for the viewers in the Arena and watching at home with SonicFox, ApolgyMan, Dekillsage and FT|B all fighting for a place. It would be Dekillsage who would come out on top, beating everyone else and going 6–1 overall, with a 2–0 win over SonicFox in the final game of the Pool to go into Top 8 and carrying the hopes the the U.S. along the way.

After a dominating Pools, Dekillsage looked set to pick up where he had left off beating Fenritti 2–0 in the Winners Semi Final with his team of Teen Gohan, Broly and Goku. His run was abruptly ended however by Goichi in the Winners Final, losing 3–1 to the EVO 2019 Champion and then going on to lose in the runback against Fenritti in losers final 3–0. A slightly rough ending to a weekend that started off with massive promise for Dekillsage but finishing 3rd in the World Tour is a huge accomplishment and it’ll be interesting to see if he can take his game to the next step later this year.

New Z Assist Select Mechanic Announced

Among all the action DBFZ Producer Tomoki Hiroki announced some long awaited gameplay changes, balance adjustments as well as a look into the new characters we can expect for Season 3. We already knew the Ultra Instinct Goku would be added to the roster as part of the new season of characters and joining him will be female Saiyan Kefla, a fusion of Kale and Caulifa from Dragon Ball Super and releasing on the 28th Feb.

The biggest change has to be the introduction of new Z Assist selects, with every character having a choice of 3 Assist moves to use instead of just the one. The change is similar to how Marvel vs Capcom 3 implements Assist moves and should open up more possibilities for combo routes and broader setups. In the trailer we see the likes of Krillen and Yamcha use Kamehameha Beam Assists instead of their usual attacks and Frieza can now use his Death Ball instead too.

When we can expect all the changes to happen is still a mystery but Producer Tomoki Hiroki promises more information in the near future. For now Kefla releases on the 28th, hopefully the new game play mechanics quickly follow.

New Champion Crowned

Since the start of Dragon Ball FighterZ’s lifetime in the FGC, Goichi “GO1” Kishida from Japan has long been considered one of, if not the best player and the man to beat at any tournament. As a veteran anime fighting game player and a master defense, with opponents rarely able to open him up he was a strong favourite for many to take the World Tour Finals.

After stumbling against fellow Japanese player BNBBN in Pools losing 2–1, he still came out on top of Group B to qualify for Top 8 on Winners Side. He then proceeded to go unbeaten in his quest to be crowned Grand Master, beating Tachikawa 2–1 in Semis, Dekillsage 3–1 in Winners Final before meeting Fenritti in an all Japan Grand Final.

In Game 1 Goichi was playing as his trademark team of Bardock, GT Goku, and Goku against Fenritti’s Cell, GT Goku and Vegeta, and right from the beginning Goichi started off aggressively racking up a 101 hit combo and finishing off Fenritt’s Cell with Bardock’s level 3. Things got worse for Fenritti, as he lost his sparking and his GT Goku in the mirror match and was looking at a 1v1 situation with Goichi’s team barely taking any damage at all. Goichi tagged back in Bardock to finish off an outnumbered Vegeta to go 1–0 up.

Despite an early loss Fenritti was not to be rattled and fought back, with his Cell doing some early work in game 2 and surviving till the end in a 1v1 vs Goichi’s Goku, but this time Cell had the final say killing off Goku with a simple level 1 super to make it 1–1. Fenritti, now looking much more composed continued to pull ahead in game 3, finishing with style with a level 3 super from Cell on Goichi’s Goku.

Now 2–1 up Fenritti needed just 1 more win for the reset but was denied as Goichi managed to pull a game back and level things out at 2–2 each. Now there was everything to play for in game 5 with Goichi 1 game away from becoming Grand Master and Fenritti 1 game from being eliminated or resetting the bracket and getting a second chance.

As game 5 started Goichi’s Bardock play was tight, staying patient in defence and striking back hard on offence when he found the openings in the corners. It wasn’t long before one by one Fenritti’s characters dropped to Goichi’s team, leaving only Vegeta to face Goichi’s GT Goku. Even a level 3 sparking wasn’t enough to help Vegeta mount a comeback as GT Goku waited it out before finishing off Vegeta and Fenritti’s hopes with an aerial autocombo.

Huge celebrations and emotions from Goichi in the post match scenes and he starts off 2020 as the reigning DBFZ EVO and World Tour Champion.

Low Points

SonicFox Drowns in Pools

The original rivalry when it comes to DBFZ will always be SonicFox and Goichi. At the beginning of the game’s life the two would trade wins back and forth on their way to EVO 2018 which SonicFox won, beating Goichi in the Grand Final. Since then SonicFox has continued to have success in DBFZ and also Mortal Kombat 11 since its release last year as well. Splitting his time between the two games and picking up wins has many considering him as one of the best North American Fighting game players around.

It was unfortunate then to see him go out early on in Pools and in such a lackluster style as he went 0–3 losing to ApologyMan 2–1, Dekillsage 2–0 and FT|B 2–1. His early elimination and poor performances would have come as a shock for some but perhaps with his time split between multiple games he may not have been able to keep up with his fellow Dragon Ball players. With the big changes happening in Season 3 it may only become more difficult to win at the highest level in the future.

Kazunoko Out Early As Well

With only two people going through each group in Pools, there was always the potential for upsets as favourites or high seeds would be knocked out early. Alongside SonicFox in Group C was Kazunoko in Group D. At last years World Tour Finals Kazunoko beat Fenritti in the Grand Finals to become the first Grand Master in the game’s history. This year unfortunately, just like SonicFox, Kazunoko was eliminated in Top 16 Pools, going 1–2 losing to Supernoon’s Kid Buu, Bardock and GT Goku 2–1 and eventual Grand Finalist Fenritti 2–0, using his team of Kid Buu, GT Goku and Goku throughout.

With his elimination he was denied a chance at defending his title in Top 8 and will hopefully come back stronger for season 3.

Fenritti Loses It Again

It’s now two World Tour Finals in a row that Japan’s Fenritti has finished second after his defeat to Goichi last Sunday. Against Kazunoko in 2019 he managed to reset the bracket only to be beaten 3–1 in the second set. This year he came close to resetting the bracket again but Goichi proved too strong, beating Fenretti 3–2. At this level the pressure to succeed is very high for some players and coming so close to winning the Tour twice, only to fall at the last hurdle both times will be a big blow to Fenritti so hopefully it will only motivate him even more to win it next time.

For now the focus for Fenritti will most likely be on EVO 2020 in August where DBFZ will be a main stage title again, giving him an opportunity for revenge on Goichi and glory for himself finally.

No European reps in Top 8

Whilst we had a Last Chance Qualifier Top 8 featuring multiple European players like OBAssassin from the UK Kayne and Kyden from France, the European and French representation ended on Saturday as Shanks from Spain and France’s Wawa were both eliminated in Pools by their Japanese and American counterparts.

In Group A of Pools Wawa’s found himself on the brink of qualification to Top 8 as he went into his final game against Maddo’s Kid Buu, GT Goku and Goku Team. Game 1 was a real back and forth slug fest, with Maddo coming out as the winner and getting the lead. Wawa then pulled out Vegito, GT Goku and Base Goku and went on to absolutely destroy Maddo without losing a character in game 2 to bring it back level.

Going into game 3 a confused Maddo looked for some guidance from none other than Goichi. After a quick coaching session the advice seemed to pay off as Maddo’s Kid Buu was more aggressive, keeping Vegito pinned in the corner before executing a level 3 super and then hitting the follow up to kill off Vegito. With the main problem eliminated, Maddo cleaned up to take the final game and advance to Top 8 knocking out Wawa from the Tournament in the process.

In Group B Spain’s Shanks found himself in a similar position to Wawa, with either elimination or qualification awaiting him going into his final Pools game against this time Goichi. Playing as his usual team of Android 18, Adult Gohan and Goku Shanks was up against a Goichi also playing for qualification and the added pressure on the Japanese playing seemed to help him to a resounding 2–0 win over Shanks in efficient style.

With both of the European players eliminated it was left to LCQ Winner Tachikawa to become the peoples champion and raise the flag for Europe during Top 8 which he did admirably and the crowd responded well, helping him all the way to the Losers Semi Finals. Hopefully next year we’ll see the likes of Shanks, Wawa and Kayne go one step further.

For further reading have a look at some of my other articles:

FGC Podcast Recommendations

7 Things we learned from EVO Japan 2020