Tecmo today announced an official Xbox Live tournament for Dead or Alive Ultimate. The tournament will begin on Monday, February 21, but won't be running in the standard tournament format high level fighting game fans may be accustomed to. Instead of a standard double elimination bracket, Tecmo has opted to go with a mystery gamer format, followed by a single elimination tournament.

One member of Team Ninja will be available in select gaming sessions for one month. Details on these sessions will be available on Xbox.com later this week, and we'll update you as soon as they're available. However, what we know now is that players will be able to challenge the mystery gamer, and those able to beat the member of Team Ninja will move on to the second round.

Once players have advanced to the second round of the competition, they will compete against each other using the tournament setup already available in Dead or Alive Ultimate. The top two winners from this round (which will include participants in the US and Canada), along with six other winners from around the world, will win a trip to the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo to battle it out in one final tournament.

While we applaud Tecmo for offering such a wonderful chance for Dead or Alive fans, high level players may frown at the single elimination and mystery gamer format Tecmo has chosen. We'll have more information on the tournament as well as feedback from the Dead or Alive community in the very near future. To all those planning to participate, we wish you good luck.