A world championship tour for Dragon Ball Fighter Z will see qualifying competitions in seven different countries, each with its own Dragon Ball as a prize. But what if one competitor wins all seven?
Announced by publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment this morning, the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour will bring structured competition to the mega-popular fighting game along the lines of Street Fighter V’s own Pro Tour. It will consist of seven qualifying tournaments hosted across the globe at established fighting game venues in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Mexico, Singapore, and Japan, as well as a final event that will serve as both a last-chance qualifier and the grand finals. A total of $60,000 will be up for grabs across the entire circuit.
It all kicks off next weekend at Community Effort Orlando in Daytona Beach, Florida, with additional stops planned for the rest of the year. The grand finals will take place somewhere in the United States on January 26 and 27, 2019. The winners of each preliminary competition will be granted one of the series’ wish-granting Dragon Balls, their metaphorical ticket to the main event. (No word yet on whether they get an actual ball, too.)
That’s where things get weird. Should a single competitor collects all seven Dragon Balls, the entire focus of the $25,000 grand finals changes. That player will immediately enter the championship match, acting as a “final boss” of sorts for whoever manages to win the on-site open tournament. With just one person holding every Dragon Ball, the normal eight-player finals bracket becomes a first-to-ten exhibition between the champion that managed to earn them all and the challenger left standing after the last-chance qualifier.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is in a good place in terms of player diversity, so it isn’t hard to come up with a few names who could hypothetically pull off this incredible feat. Dominique “SonicFox” McLean has proven himself as a master of multiple fighting games, and recently made a case for being the best player in the world when he finally defeated Japanese rival Goichi “GO1" Kishida, who himself appeared unbeatable for some time. That said, Eduardo “HookGangGod” Deno proved there’s room for more than two players in the discussion after winning the Summit of Power invitational. And there’s a growing number of top players looking to shift into that upper echelon themselves. Winning all seven tournaments will take tremendous effort (and more than a little luck) no matter the player, but stranger things have happened.
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Ian Walker loves fighting games and writing about them. You can find him on Twitter at @iantothemax.