EVO competitors recreate iconic Dragon Ball Z moment with audience

Two EVO competitors managed to recreate an iconic moment from Dragon Ball Z and even got the audience involved during the DBFZ tournament.

The Dragon Ball series has been around since the 1980s, with its fanbase remaining very active to this day. Dragon Ball Z, the series that propelled Dragon Ball to one of the most popular series in the world, has its fair share of iconic moments.

A historic matchup

Of those moments, Cell’s fight with Goku’s son, Gohan, is among those that have been remembered by fans for decades.

Cell, the main villain of Dragon Ball Z’s Cell Story Arc

Pitting Cell and Gohan against each other on a certain map in DBFZ will prompt an in-game cutscene recreating the start of these two characters’ epic clash.

Audiences get involved with this cutscene and scream along with the characters, something that’s been termed the “Cell Yell”.

The yell that shook EVO 2022

For those unaware, Cell has fallen out of favor as more and more fighters have been included in DBFZ, but Joan ‘Shanks’ Namay, the player who locked in Cell, was determined to make this moment happen.

He could be seen communicating with his opponent, Eric ‘LegendaryyPred’ Bonilla, to make sure the two of them could make this moment happen for the audience.

Shanks getting LegendaryyPred’s attention to coordinate the Cell Yell

The crowd erupted the moment Shanks locked in Cell. They were ready for the Cell Yell.

Until one of the competitors accidentally skipped the cutscene. So, they went out of their way to remake the game and give it another try.

What followed was a yell that shook the area, a yell that was almost louder than the characters in-game.

The casters joined in on hyping the audience up, quoting the scene themselves and bringing some of that hype to the broadcast.

Unfortunately for Shanks, choosing Cell didn’t work out. It’s hard to say whether or not the outcome would have been different if he chose a different team composition, but Shanks was determined to bring the audience together through this iconic scene.

In a tweet from Shanks where he was considering playing Cell to initiate this moment, Shanks said that “It might be our last chance to yell together”.

Shanks may not have won this set, but his sportsmanship and love for the audience gave us one of EVO 2022’s best moments.