What IS "Overfishing"? How can I try? Here's your answer!

You may have heard about "Overfishers" after the recent Big Run, or maybe you've heard Hazmy mention them in one of his Youtube videos. Regardless of how you learned of them, you're curious now. This guide will answer some of your questions about Overfishers, and how you can join them!

1. So, what is Overfishing?

Simple!
In the context of Splatoon, Overfishing is simply the act of attempting to score the highest amount of eggs in a given shift that you can, and playing accordingly.
This is in contrast to the normal Salmon Run gameplay loop of "Meet quota, then play it safe while you try to survive".
It is important to note that THIS IS LITERALLY THE ONLY DEFINITION OF OVERFISHING. ANY CRAP YOU'VE HEARD ON TWITTER THAT CONTRADICTS THIS ARE LIES. There's no minimum skill requirement, no required commitment to a specific team, none of that. Many people get scared away from overfishing because they think they need to reach a certain skill level or join a team, when none of those barriers even exist.

2. Okay, how do I play differently for Overfishing?

This is kind of tricky to sum up in just a few paragraphs, so I'll just give a brief description, and if you want more details, you can either join the Overfishing Discord server (Invite link here), or check out some of the guides I've been copy/pasting from there over to here, the amount of which will grow over time!
Basically, rather than simply survive, you need to actively try to use techniques to grab and deposit eggs as quickly and efficiently as possible.
(For example, there is a technique called Snatcher Optimization. Snatchers will always spawn from the same spot throughout a single wave. This means that if we pay attention to where they're spawning, rather than kill them on sight, we can let them live, wait for them to pick up a bunch of eggs for us, then kill them on their return trip, dropping the eggs near the basket and saving a lot of time that would have been spent bring the eggs back by hand.)
Learning advanced tech such as Sub Strafing will greatly enhance your movement, and you may spend a special simply to kill a ton of lessers that are clogging up a hallway if it takes less time than killing them the normal way.

3. Are there any kind of organized competitions?
Overfishing is actually pretty casual, for the most part. The Overfishing Discord will give you special roles if you post proof of hitting certain achievements, and there's Big Run and Eggstra Work, but that's about it. There is a leaderboard with the top scores, but know that they are extremely high scores set by people who've been Overfishing since Splatoon 2, so don't beat yourself up if your scores are nowhere near theirs. Who knows, maybe you'll be up there someday! Just know that improvement takes time.

4. Okay, cool! How can I get started?

First thing you should do is join the Overfishing Discord Server by clicking this invite link or looking it up on desktop Discord. It was made by Brian, and is full of friendly people who are more than willing to give newcomers a hand! Talk with some people, check out the extensive guide section, and find matches in the LFG thread - oh, wait.

5. Wait, I'm told I need to pass a test to access LFG?! What's this?

Don't worry!
The test is just there to make sure people know what overfishing is + to make sure that people in lfg are willing to learn about overfishing on their own (with resources).
It's Open Book, you have unlimited tries (Though don't just spam answers hoping to chance your way in, it won't work), and as long as you've read the document they gave you carefully, the test is pretty easy. Once you pass, give the mods a bit to approve you, and you're good to go!
After that, read the #LFG-help channel, then find a game! You'll find all sorts of people, some who want to voice chat, some who don't, some who want to hit a specific goal for a server role, you name it! Do know that it gets a bit harder to find games after North America goes to sleep, though.

6. What next?

That's up to you! I'd personally suggest trying to play quite a bit to build experience, and ask your teammates what aspects you could improve on. If you have any questions, feel free to ask about it in the general channel. There always seems to be people in there, so you'll get a response after a little while. I might add another guide eventually with some ideas, as well! I wish you good luck on you overfishing journey!

Most importantly, don't forget to have fun! That's the whole point of a game, after all.