So with the release of Ultra Instinct Goku approaching, no doubt the most hyped DLC character since the game's release, I started getting reflective about Dragon Ball FighterZ. A lot of time has passed since the game hit the market and I started waxing nostalgic about the teams I've played over the course of it.

Back in those young days of season 1 I ran with two teams:

The first was Super Saiya-jin Goku, Super Saiya-jin Vegeta, and Freeza.

Why did I pick these characters? As someone who really didn't have much experience with .Vs style fighters, as opposed to one on one fighters I wanted a team that had strong fundamentals, and SSJ Goku was essentially the Tim Duncan (Ryu for those of you who don't get the reference) of Dragon Ball FighterZ.

I picked SSJ Vegeta because Vegeta is probably my favorite character in the whole series and if I can find a way to fit him into one of my teams I'm going to. Also during the early days of the game SSJ Vegeta was unquestionably the best character. His assist was leagues and bounds beyond any of the others pre-nerf and like Goku he had a good fundamental based gameplan. He was good for any position on the team, though at that point in time team construction wasn't one of my strong suits.

I picked Freeza because his style was unlike that of any other characters in the game at the time. In a game that's all about rush down, at the game's start, Freeza was the closest thing it had to a zoner. Eventually I put him in the anchor slot, but for a time he was the leading man on the team and Goku was in the anchor spot. It swapped about for a while, but ultimately ended up with Goku as the point character in the end. The reason being I wanted to lead with solid fundamental play and then resort to Freeza's less orthodox style to either throw another look at the enemy or slow their momentum.

How successful was this team? Well it was successful as in I had a lot of fun playing it and learning a .VS style fighter for the first time, but I didn't make it out of the Demon level rankings during that time, or the entirety my time playing this season entirely due to my lack of ability, but it was still a fun beginning. I played under the tag Dunksman Freeza during this time.

Later on I would remove Vegeta from the team and replace him with the game's first DLC character, Bardock. And so the team became Bardock/SSJ Goku/Freeza. Had a lot of fun with Bardock and did climb to my highest peak in the rankings that season, but still not out of demon rank. Anyway, after playing the game for something like 400 some hours over 3 months I got caught up in other stuff and didn't come back until season 2 was about to kick off.

When I came back my skills had definitely eroded from what they were, but I was starting in a much better place as far as to my base knowledge of the game and of this type of game, so I returned with some confidence. I decided at that point that I was going to construct a new team for this season, but perhaps construct isn't the right word, I still didn't really have a good idea for team construction in this type of game, and you'll know that for sure when I show you my season 2 team.

Jiren/Majin Boo/Base Vegeta

I was hyped for Jiren's release and it was part of the reason I got on board for season two. Unfortunately he was, not long after he came out, considered to be one of the worst characters in the game if not the worst. Still he had his bright points, mainly that his solo damage was pretty remarkable. His 2L doesn't scale like other characters lights and so he could hit like a truck. I wasn't a master of his counter moves, but I did them frequently enough to keep people honest.

Fat Majin Boo at the start of season was considered to be a pretty good character, but he got hit with nerfs pretty early in the season that crated his standings in the eyes of the community, but I freaking loved him. His fat throw was a great pressure tool that I abused the hell out of and he had a bit of a vortex based offensive style that could really make people throw fits. He was, without question, the character I was best with at any point in these first two seasons.

Base Vegeta was a, highly controversial, DLC character at the end of the first season. In early season two nerfs made him a low level character in the eyes of the community but by the season's end he was much more highly regarded again as it turns out he was still pretty nasty. I picked him because of my combination of loving Vegeta and the fact that I thought his specials were pretty badass. He made more than a few big comebacks for me that I had no business making.

During this season I fought under the team name: Dabura's Cookies.

How successful was the team? Well when the season started I spent three weeks in training mode before I ever played a match. I was immediately getting better results than I had all of season one and eventually worked my way up to the Super Saiya-Jin God rank. I would spend the rest of my time that season riding the escalator between Majin and SSJG rank. A huge improvement from where I started, but ultimately not what I was hoping for.

The team order would change all the time and I never really settled on anything for a long period of time. It was during this season that I started becoming much better at using my assists in general and working them into combos reliably as well. I made a bunch of other improvements to my game including getting better at pressuring with air dashes and sometimes actually using reflect. Still had a lot of holes in my game though if you were going down a checklist, but that's a story for another time.

I once again played about 400 some hours this season and sort of drifted away after that right around the time GT Goku came out as a character. He, apparently, went on to lord over the game in a reign of terror until the season 3 patch came out.

When word of the season 3 patch hit and what it would entail, every character getting new assists and the trailers dropping for Kefla and Ultra Instinct Goku I started quietly preparing for the coming season intent on improving my standing in the game. I decided to form a whole new team this season as well, but I hadn't decided on any characters yet.

The Dragon Super: Broly movie was pretty awesome and towards the end of season 2 Dragon Ball Super Broly and Gogeta came out as characters in FighterZ. Gogeta didn't really appeal to me at all, but Broly's moves looked cool as hell. I decided to give him a shot.

Of course, during my time away from the game my skills had declined again, but I still retained some knowledge of the basic combo structure and play style of some characters this time. Mainly, SSJ Goku and Majin Boo. So this time I put DBS Broly on point and had Goku and Boo to back him up in casual matches while I learned the character.

Once I felt comfortable with Broly I moved him off point and to the the mid position (which he has since made his home) while trying to decide on my next character. It took a lot of soul searching, but I decided I was going to become a Vegito player. Vegito is to put it lightly, highly disliked among the community as a character. I'd say Bardock, Teen Gohan and Vegito are probably the 3 most hated characters by the community because their light attacks are *good* and I don't mean just *good* but *good good* that type of *good*. So I started testing Vegito on the point and backing him up with DBS Broly and Majin Boo.

Vegito, despite having the reputation of being a brain-dead character was a bit of a struggle for me to learn at first. He can break the game's combo structure by chaining medium attacks into light attacks and his opening gambit with light or medium and while that's a fairly simple thing to grasp learning the order in which he can toss those moves out was a bit of a hurdle for me, but I got over it quickly enough. In the earliest part of my time with him it felt like I was more or less treading water, but now I feel like he's evolved into the de-facto team captain as the season has worn on. I have my best tech and game-planning with him. Plus he has some stuff that lets him throw a wrench in the games conventions that can sometimes toss an opponent off balance.

The last character on the team was an out of left field thing, noted DBFZ Youtuber, Rooflemonger made a tips and tricks guide for Tenshinhan in season 3 and I found him to be the perfect addition to the team. Strong fundamentals and with the systems changes, specifically the limit break mechanic, he made the ideal anchor. He's the character I've put the least practice in with, but just playing really basic with him has served me well and he's pulled off an unbelievable amount of comebacks for me in this young season.

How successful has this team been? After an up and down start I caught fire and have made it into Super Saiya-jin Blue rank where I've held steady for a short time now. I've rounded off a lot of rough spots in my game and made huge improvements in my patience and blocking ability as well as crafted a team with real synergy between its component members. I think I have a fair shot at making Living Legend this season, if I get to that I'll be satisfied. Anything beyond? that would be insane.

Anyway, I just felt like writing about my time with the game. Maybe I'll do it again in another 3 years (heh).

EDIT: One last bit, for this season I've been going under the name Nine Eyes.