Are Japanese Players Actually Better than Everyone Else?(Casually)

[Arigato!]

I don't know why people think this but it's not true. I'm in the takoroka division right now, and there are some pretty bad players. In my opinion, the "dumbest" japanese player is just as dumb as the "dumbest american player.

 

[DzNutsKong]

The best players in the world are Japanese. This does not mean that every single Japanese player is inherently better than every single western player. There are casual players and professionals playing in both parts of the world.

 

[Grushi]

Agreed, it's mostly that japan has way more "holy f*ck this guy is insane how do I even fight that" players than the west.

And in tentatek div, most of the scariest players are japanese because they just want to get top 10 for the badge, whereas most cracked western players switched to takaroka to fight the actual best players.

And also like, no offense, but a lot of "scary" jp players just use .52, zooka spam, or slider cheese, so they're not all badasses lol

 

[Cephalobro]

I have played against Japanese players in which they were easy to win against. So yeah, even in Japan there are casual and hardcore players.

EDIT: Though, I do feel that some western players can be really dumb from what I have experienced.

 

[sevenleaf]

see i think what gets lost with this conversation is that comparing the japanese scene with the western one isn’t really done with the ‘dumbest’/least skilled players in mind. really what it means (or, what it’s supposed to mean) is “japan’s top players tend to wipe the floor with the west’s top players”. japan of course also has casuals/newbies/little timmys (though likely not named ‘timmy’ lol).

there are factors that make this discrepancy in skill at top level a thing, including but not limited to the fact that there’s a language barrier stopping a lot of western players from learning from top japanese players. but i’m not an expert on all that

of course this gets mutated into “all japanese players are INHERENTLY CRACKED so if you even see a SINGLE kana character in an opponent’s name you should GIVE UP” because people like to take ideas they half understand and run with them but yeah it’s very much not a statement applicable to casual or probably even low-level comp. it’s about top jp players vs the rest of the world’s top players

 

[Arigato!]

see i think what gets lost with this conversation is that comparing the japanese scene with the western one isn’t really done with the ‘dumbest’/least skilled players in mind. really what it means (or, what it’s supposed to mean) is “japan’s top players tend to wipe the floor with the west’s top players”. japan of course also has casuals/newbies/little timmys (though likely not named ‘timmy’ lol).

there are factors that make this discrepancy in skill at top level a thing, including but not limited to the fact that there’s a language barrier stopping a lot of western players from learning from top japanese players. but i’m not an expert on all that

of course this gets mutated into “all japanese players are INHERENTLY CRACKED so if you even see a SINGLE kana character in an opponent’s name you should GIVE UP” because people like to take ideas they half understand and run with them but yeah it’s very much not a statement applicable to casual or probably even low-level comp. it’s about top jp players vs the rest of the world’s top players

Yeah that happens. It mostly happens with newbies who hear top level western players talk about japanese players. newbies get scared and spread stuff.

 

[missingno]

 

[briank913]

I saw a Reddit post asking this very question and I'll share my answer here:

This is their game. They have the home field advantage. I'd argue more people in Japan grew up with Splatoon than anywhere else. So for those who are still playing, you can expect them to be good.

But they are not gods at this or any game. They are more likely to work on their craft but that doesn't always mean victory. That being said, playing against them is always an experience. I think the word "humbling" might be a better fit to describe playing against JP people. Overall they can be said to be better yes, but not impossible to win against.

 

[Alphine_Agnitio]

its a geographical advantage(everyone is closer to each other so less latency + less time to meet up in person to do lans and the like) but not every american/europian player is a top player, just as much the same applies to japan

I see way too many people see hirigana names and go "wow japanese players we're cooked!" and then it ends up being fine/a steamroll. For all the issues the splatoon 3 matchmaking has, you are not going to be matched up with top level splatoon 3 japanase players in the middle of the night for japan during peak american timezone hours unless you are already at the skill level(x power, mainly) where the game would even consider it even, and its an attitude that really bugs me because its oft used as an easy thing to blame as to why you lost, instead of focusing on how you can improve

 

[Lisku]

I mean probably they are because the game is WAY more popular in Japan

 

[Dessgeega]

Overall? Probably not. On average? Yeah, because there's more of them and they're more willing to experiment than the western community.

 

[reelrollsweat]

i havent heard anyone talk abt just how much larger the jp scene is compared to the na scene. the jp scene has like 10x as many strong players as na because it has 10x as many ppl period. that also means jp has 10x as many coughing baby timmies as na

 

[shirpless]

On S rank, I've seen same-skilled Japanese players, worse & questionable Japanese players (I've seen an orange zap only spamming bombs from top left of Undertow RM), cracked teenage Japanese players (they put their age in their in-game name, usually for joining Japanese Splatuber's age-related challenge events).

But yea, it's not a guarantee that most JP players I encounter will steamroll me. I do encounter them more, especially me being in SE Asia. Add to that the JP scene just has a ton more players than other regions.

 

[bae95]

Japanese shooters, chargers, blasters will always have a very large advantage over American brush, roller, and Dualies players. (because they have much higher ping) (Splatoon determines kills based on the player hits an enemy on their local copy of players position data) (more ping = more delayed or corrupted position data)

There's a reason why ping is prioritized in matchmaking.

Please tell the Japanese players to stop flocking over to the T-Tek division to farm X battle rank, there was a huge influx of them this season and they're ruining online matchmaking.

 

[Yosi Spring]

Japanese shooters, chargers, blasters will always have a very large advantage over American brush, roller, and Dualies players. (because they have much higher ping) (Splatoon determines kills based on the player hits an enemy on their local copy of players position data) (more ping = more delayed or corrupted position data)

Yeah, the ping is the most noticeable difference with Japanese players. Depending on the playstyle, the ping can make it a lot harder to fight them (like if they're using tons of swim speed and ninja squid).

 

[reelrollsweat]

Japanese shooters, chargers, blasters will always have a very large advantage over American brush, roller, and Dualies players. (because they have much higher ping) (Splatoon determines kills based on the player hits an enemy on their local copy of players position data) (more ping = more delayed or corrupted position data)

There's a reason why ping is prioritized in matchmaking.

Please tell the Japanese players to stop flocking over to the T-Tek division to farm X battle rank, there was a huge influx of them this season and they're ruining online matchmaking.

tbf it goes both ways. jp players and na players in the same lobby will both get lag, its not really advantageous for either side. a lot of top na players are in takoroka x division to get higher x powers and jp players on twitter will complain abt them lagging lol

 

[Hitzel]

The short answer is no*

I made a quick "graph" to demonstrate why. The red triangle represents the population of JP players, and the blue one represents everyone else. The Y axis is "skill level," and as you can see there are less and less players the higher you go in skill level ─ the triangle "gets thinner."

Eventually, if you go above the yellow line, you'll reach a point where a select few best JP players usually outclass everyone else.

However, if you are playing casually, and are somewhere near the pink line, you'll be surrounded by JP and other players of all skill levels near you. The only real difference is that you'll see more JP players than others, but the JP players you face on average shouldn't really be fundamentally better than the others you face.

This is almost entirely driven by population size. JP population = bigger = more competition = the cream rises higher to the top. Traditionally in shooter games you saw the opposite; huge western populations competing in FPS games with a small JP population that makes a graph where these triangles are reversed. We just happen to be playing a game that reverses the status quo.

 

[jealous-lens47]

Honestly, I see this as a stereotype.