Is Competitive Splatoon Dying? (Yes)(For Now)

[@ajmoment8091]

Something I think a lot of people seem to have forgotten, or just not understood in the first place is that a community is not a passive thing that just happens. A community is something made by people with effort put into it, and if you stop putting that effort in, people will stop caring.

[@eleqilix]

Okay so first up, I say this from the pov of a div 6 player that has been involved with the comp scene for about 2 years and actively played it for 1,5. I think a big part is the bar set by top level players, these are people that have played thousands of hours and have years of analysing the game and their weapons. Low level teams don’t and I personally think this is why 80% of low level players don’t get into mid level in the first place. Splatoon is hard as shit and you need to have a good amount of resilience to losses and slow progression because there is a lack of coaching and educational content on KZbin. I started comp as a machine player. There is no machine content, there is the guide from gus and like 2 other videos from past nerf machine. Even with bucket there is almost nothing even though it’s a very popular and good weapon. A lot of top or mid level players are gatekeeping or simply showing ignorance towards the lower level players, low level is probably the are where people are still the most excited about comp and actually making and sticking to a team. I mean if you look at the S15 liti post, there are like 6x as many teams in low level compared to mid/top. TLDR: make educational content and coaching to help low level players to get to mid level, given they are the people still excited about comp and making/sticking to teams

[@LilaLychi]

5:45 - Imo Oversaturation is not a concern right now. Higher Skill tournaments aren't having this issue as much as the Low Level scene supposedly is. I can understand this argument on paper, although I think there are a few factors we as a scene are forgetting. I think that having multiple tournaments that run similarly on the daily is important due to multiple reasons: - Regional Accessibility (EU/NA/OCE) - Scheduling around Work/School/Sleep - Variety of opponents (due to reasons above) - Autonomy to choose what you'd like to play While certain TOs have complained about skill capped tournaments existing at the same time as Open Level tournaments- I think higher level folks forget the struggles low level players go through. Finding a team that doesn't disband within a month is definitely the biggest one. 😅 - Managing Tilt (Lower Level players really struggle with this, especially against higher skilled players.) - Overall Coordination (We play very slowly, many Low LVL teams are trying to figure out how to use their specials together first over getting faster paced practice) - Lack of Coaching (Not having someone who is more experienced give us feedback/guide us to new goals.) - Advancing mechanical skills (A lot of newer players are still trying to figure out their weapons as they play) I can understand the concept of too much supply over demand, but like you had mentioned later on in the video with Prochara starting his career during splatoon 2's lull- I think it's extra important that we continue to nurture our TO scene. I've seen 2 well known TOs step down lately due to personal reasons, with Megalodon Monday (formerly EU catered tournament) being laid to rest. If we want this community to grow, we need to support grassroots and not discourage TOs from exploring new tournament ideas. This is just my personal opinion though, as I am a TO for a very new Minnesota-based splatoon LAN known as Twin Squiddies. We are Squidwest affiliated, and as the Marketing Agent- I've been trying my darndest to get as many midwestern splatoon gamers to find out about us. 🍒

[@LilaLychi]

I forgot to elaborate more on the Prochara point. I think that if Chara had gone "agh I guess I shouldn't be making videos, the splatoon comp market is very oversaturated rn with little demand for more :/" and quit- Splatoon 3 KZbin would have been very bland 😂 I think that TOs getting the practice down now, and the scene having enough tournaments prepared for the influx at the beginning of splatoon 4 will be extra helpful. Currently, I think top level can help grow the scene by providing more guides, explaining their thought processes & most importantly giving in depth tutorials on how they play their weapons :)

[@LilaLychi]

Another thing to mention as a TO & Commentator is that like it was said in the video, we provide all of these services for free. Currently in a few commentation servers I'm in, it's hard to battle for a spot on Paddling Pool (another EU based) & Little Squid League (Saturday NA timezone). I think providing more high qualiry streams with commentation can help the scene immensely... although there are VERY FEW folks with computers/dedication to provide high quality internet and stream management. I'd say Joryan is carrying most tournaments' streams rn, shoutout to him!! ❤ It isn't black & white and I can definitely understand the concept of oversaturation in the market. I think it's a good thing although, as eventually the community will catch up. A lot of us LAN TOs are fighting tooth and nail to get our events out there, and to generate some excitement. 🎉

[@kristopherhayes1957]

What I suggest is 2 things: #1 centralization and #2 KZbin content. KZbin is self-explanatory. If you don’t upload on youtube, things won’t be seen as much. Twitch isn’t easier to find content as compared to youtube. As a S rank player, I love hearing weapon strategies, key map areas for game modes, and tier lists. However, I rarely see that on KZbin outside of just a handful of videos. As for centralization, organizing the tournaments and trimming them down from 44 tournaments into maybe 10 or 20 is best. More options doesn't mean more viewers. Centralizing the content encourages more viewership while also having options for new players and watchers to become more familiar with.

[@oabrian]

Recently we had the King's Cup in Japan and you see JP content creators still amassing thousands of views. And that's the thing: Nintendo is primarily catering to the JP audience (and why shouldn't they?). Nintendo probably doesn't want to cater to western audience especially with the Jackpot situation (and who can blame them?). And you got to cater to your primary audience first and foremost rather than take a please everyone approach. Now we can argue that Nintendo stopping content update doesn't help (which is objectively true), but I also think about how we as players approach this reality: Splatoon 1 and 2 did have 3 kits and whatnot so the comparison is inevitable, but really can we stop with the "where's my 3rd kit" attitude? Experiment with what's there, attempt something serious with a stupid kit, do dumb things just for the lols, try a scrim with an unorthodox comp rather than solely emulating "the top." Speaking of which, I think people are over-reliant on top level players. When you think about it, what variety do you really see at the top? You get people pushing for things here and there, but it's basically the same thing at the top. And that gets stale. You can't find videos of your main at the top? Make your own or look for one even if it isn't "top level." I'd argue you can learn from someone who isn't a top level player. It's just a matter of your attitude towards it. Oh and outside perception (e.g. those who don't play the game) of Splatoon is *probably* not that positive as well. The funny squid game really is and will continue to be a niche thing in the west.

[@nowieso]

I think the main problem here is actually Nintendo. I've been playing since the first testfire of the first game and played comp for about 4 years, but from the first moment of playing S3, something felt... off compared to the previous games. We have horrible maps, a lack of content, the worst online "service" ever for this franchise, and extremely stale metas. It's just hard to get hyped about this game, especially when most seasons were extremely underwhelming. We probably have the pandemic to blame for all of this. I loved watching and playing tournaments previously, but lost my interest in S3 just a few months after release. Also, in cooler-meta, exciting, super hype moments just don't hit the same when this stupid special basically invalidates your kills.

[@Luxius_8]

The biggest problem is the lack of content from top players. Most top-level players don't make long lasting content, they don't even post their VODs on KZbin. I can't find any western top charger or pencil video, even though it's the best weapon in the game. Without content, everything will fall appart. That happened over a year ago with the french community, when Evil Squid and Octo Boy stopped posting a few months after Splatoon 3's release.

[@grogg4372]

I've been watching competitive Splatoon since the early days of S1 and want to chip in from this very different perspective. I have found my interest dwindling in comp S3 not even so much due to the lack of content (if I want to watch something you bet I can find it, no matter how obscure) as much as the game going out of its way to stifle itself. It does not seem well designed around the main gimmick, resulting in very repetitive matches, so no matter what level, mode, country or even person I watch, it gets old fast. You don't see people bringing non-optimal weapons to higher ranks and kicking everyone to the curb either (this could still happen in other games). Yeah I know this dead horse has been beaten into a pancake already so I seen no need to elaborate further. Just want to say that this situation is not entirely the playerbase's fault. It's just not a very fun game to watch unless you are a particular type of player/viewer this game caters to. Therefore, high-level content doesn't get as much engagement as it used to. Not to mention casual content has shriveled up as well (very hard to play this game casually 😅).

[@DariTV_]

My honest opinion on this matter is that i think, it´s nintendos fault that the competitive scene is in it´s current state, which is a long-term issue existing since the day Splatoon 1 released. Saying that they barely support competitive players is an understatement. Here are some of my issues i have with Nintendo in Splatoon: - No official tournaments/championships held regularly. - No official tournaments outside Japan in Europe, very few in America. - No / barely any communication from the devs with the community. It does not feel like they listen to us. - Both sequels to Splatoon made barely any big changes which really made them feel like big, needed sequels. Especially Splatoon 3 somehow feels like a step back in a few places, although it tried it´s best. But Nintendo needs to be brave and allow themselves to change more things, even if it´s small things like the UI. - The in-game ranked modes are both horrible and do not give you a feeling of improvement or reaching something meaningful. They also do not reward you outside of badges. - An online multiplayer that is supposed to be played regularly must be updated regularly. Especially if we want this game to stay competitive, we definitely need new content instead of having years where nothing happens, like april 2019 - september 2022. Both casual and competitive audiences will stay attracted to the franchise if there is something going on. These are just some issues the game has and i know that Nintendo is not the sole reason of why we are in this situation, but i think if there was a new game to come out on the next console, they decide how the future of the community will be. We could have Splatoon 1.4 with the community being active for 1-2 years again, or they decide to do something for competitive folks and treat Splatoon like an actual live-service game.

[@LilaLychi]

@@DariTV_ I agree! Although I really think this lands on how slow JP's technology is compared to the rest of the world. Japan *just* phased out floppy disks (for those reading who don't understand what this means- it's technology that is ancient compared to modern day. It's a few decades old.) Which the Japanese government considers to be a huge win. I can hope this technological advance can make the Switch's successor & subsequent games a giant leap in quality for Nintendo. We also have seen Nintendo's new playtest of what appears to be servers (launched in late 2024 for a short period of time and only accessible to NSO+ subscribers), of which was very successful. I'm hopeful for the future, and I know not everyone understands that. Your POV is extremely helpful and I'm glad to see someone else is just as passionate about this topic as I am!

[@Silverift]

well said. the halfway approach nintendo is going for with live service really isn’t doing the splatoon games much justice, as it inevitably leads to players and content creators abandoning the game once nintendo wraps up the update cycle. it genuinely might be the time for nintendo to rethink some of splatoon’s long standing traditions if they want it to succeed long-term.

[@toyoben2]

I don't agree with everything you said but you make good points

[@giganticmoon]

i think viewers are just getting bored of seeing the same weapons

[@jorgielebron1995]

I play rank everyday at random times

[@KNGDDDE]

Its namcos fault, custom kits couldve made the scene hit unforseen heights... But we are in a reccession tho sooo...

[@casoheloa7407]

Yeah competitive scene better becomes smaller. Splatoon series is famous for its weapon range on mains, subs, specials, and their combinations. Once the competitive scene grows, the balance theory of dota2 or csgo will instantly come up, which means you can never enjoy the game as you used to. The majority of players will be forced to choose the stronger weapons over the weapons they like. Btw the ideology of devs is simple, make it a carnival rather than competitive biased. Nobody with normal jobs has extra energy to practice/analyze 4~8 hours a day. Additionally, this small part of competitive players will spread the weighting of weapons on win rates, which makes the game harder to enjoy. In fact, something is not even able to be balanced. For example, if you can react fast enough, the dynamo roller will never be able to finish a hit. But this is only achieveable when you train and practice a lot, which is supposed to be done massively only by competitive players. However, it's not possible if you play just for fun. Better give up the Esports spirit.

[@Luxius_8]

Yippee, slop commentary with splatoon gameplay 😃😃😃😃

[@grogg4372]

Why are people calling things slop all the time now Or is this just a cool new way to say you don't like a thing

[@Luxius_8]

@grogg4372 it's a joke about tthe video being similar to slop commentary, it's not that deep

[@toyoben2]

Dw, it's pretty much exactly what I want to use this channel for 👍

[@grogg4372]

@Luxius_8 yeah fair enough 👍