Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Producer Jun Furutani announced Friday morning that Bandai Namco is putting on a series of tournaments that will lead up to an international clash next January.
There’s a catch, however, as The Dramatic Showdown Tournament (DST), as it’s been named, will function unlike any competitive event we’ve ever seen. For starters, characters for the final 16 have already been picked… sort of.
Furutani explains that the DST is aimed to be a celebration, and more specifically a celebration of the characters of Dragon Ball. Tournament organizers have chosen 16 of Sparking Zero’s 182-character roster to be used by the finalists, but the predetermination goes a even a step deeper.
Players across the globe will compete in a series of online Sparking Zero events (via PlayStation 5) and champions from nine areas of the world will punch their tickets to the final event, The Battle Hour, which we be held in Los Angeles in January.
In the announcement video below, Furutani randomly chooses country names from a box to assign characters to finalists from their respective countries. Ultra Instinct Goku, for instance, will be played by the finalist from France while Germany will have to use Super Baby 2.
The seven remaining finals slots will be decided in a last chance qualifier, to be held on Friday, Jan 17, the first day of The Battle Hour event. Those who want to attend as spectators can do so for free via the sign up page that’s already live. The Battle Hour will run for three days and feature Dragon Ball action from other properties beyond Sparking Zero.
The 16 predetermined finals characters are not all of the exact same in-game ability, so they’ll be further balanced via in-game items assigned by the tournament organizers.
Also, Finalists will actually go into battle with two characters at their disposal as they’ll be able to choose one additional character from a pool of 40 pre-selected teammates.
While certainly not the most traditional of formats, The Dramatic Showdown Tournament looks to be a fun and fireworks-filled celebration of Dragon Ball gaming. You can see more specifics, including the character identities and which countries they’ve been assigned to, in the full announcement video here:
One more note, developers hid the announcement of an incoming balance patch for Sparking Zero, set to hit in December after the conclusion of the online qualifiers, to adjust some of the game’s mechanics.