have you ever met a splatoon fan irl?

[Lisku]

and how did you meet them

 

[neonscreenlight]

i met one during a music camp that everybody in my school's music department got to go to (i'm a band kid lol). we were sitting at a campfire outside and someone called the north star polaris and he went "like the salmon run stage ruins of ark polaris??!?!?" we are still friends

also there's one in my main friend group but i still haven't gotten to play with them because his switch is perpetually broken

 

[sevenleaf]

well, i'm going to a convention this weekend, where the likelihood of running into a fan of anything in particular goes up a bit...

i have already met a couple, though:

• i didn't get into splatoon until after i'd graduated college, but one of my friends from college had been a fan this whole time lol. they messaged me out of the blue the other day to ask if i wanted to play together a bit because we were switch friends and they noticed i'd been playing splatoon 3. i literally don't think i'd talked to this person since before i graduated (that's um... almost 2 years ago now, no i don't have a job in my field) so it was nice to catch up over splatoon
• i work with kids roughly 7-9 years old which is technically slightly below the E10+ demographic but like some parents let their kids play worse, lol. unfortunately most kids only play roblox and fortnite. but i'm like somewhat conspicuously A Splatoon Fan at work - phone lockscreen from splatnet 3 (the clocks are unreliable so i have to check the time on my phone), stickers from the official splat3 sticker sheets all over my stuff, yknow? and exactly one kid, last year, noticed and went omg is that from splatoon???!? and we very briefly shared excitement over the recent-at-the-time side order announcement before i had to be the grown-up and steer us back to the tutoring session i was meant to be leading
• during my brief sidestep into a career at walmart (don't work at walmart) i had one coworker who played splatoon. we had one conversation about my hopes to go into competitive & what weapons we use & etc etc. unfortunately she ended up kind of being an awful person but you can't win 'em all i guess

 

[Aiko.Octo]

These are such good stories omg.

I don't have much other than that there is a person who works at the cat cafe an hour from here, and a couple of times I have gone there with visible splatoon accessories and they have commented on them very excitedly. They seem too shy to talk much more about it (which is fair because so am I lol) but like, maybe someday, hah.

There's also the one I met in-game first, friended, played with a bunch, eventually managed to exchange discords via name-changing shenanigans and found out we lived within 3 hours of each other and then met IRL, if that counts, lol.

 

[chaotik0]

unfortunately everyone i know hates this game (they like hating on games they never played) so i have never played with another someone i already met (or anyone at all), but i have met someone that does actually play the game... somewhat

we had the same english class, worked on assignments together (i exploded malcom gladwell's house), turns out he likes the game. he only plays turf war and not that often but this still counts right??

 

[Hokuto]

One of my classmates liked Octo Expansion, but for some reason the prospect of talking to him about anything not directly related to that class scares me. One day, I went home early and someone asked me about my Big Man keychain as we boarded the bus. Never saw her again, though. Y'know, in class at that time on most days?

 

[a hot mess]

unfortunately if i ever have met someone who played splatoon i probably have forgot.

 

[DzNutsKong]

My main high school group of friends was formed around how much we enjoy Nintendo games so a handful of us happen to play Splatoon, and I've met a few Splatoon fans at my local Smash tournaments. Don't really get to play with either super often at this point but it is nice when I do get the chance.

 

[BeckyXP]

Yeah it was at a best kept secrets store the lady was the cashier

 

[missingno]

I've been to three local tournaments, so that counts.

 

[Cephalobro]

I was on a trip to Wyoming once and we had to stay in my mom's friend's apartment, in which there was a whole family living there. Their youngest member was playing Splatoon 1 while I played Splatoon 2 at the time. I let him watch me play a few rounds of Salmon Run as I explained the mode to him.

 

[Lisku]

I was on a trip to Wyoming once and we had to stay in my mom's friend's apartment, in which there was a whole family living there. Their youngest member was playing Splatoon 1 while I played Splatoon 2 at the time. I let him watch me play a few rounds of Salmon Run as I explained the mode to him.

what year was this?

 

[Cephalobro]

I think it was in 2018 or 2019, I don't remember exactly how long ago it was.

 

[sevenleaf]

post-con update:

• i was searching for splatoon merch in the artist’s alley & got a few good finds, but one artist i bought a side order print from asked me if i’d gotten a chance to play it yet & we spent a minute talking about how far we’d gotten
• i was cosplaying harmony part of friday & all of saturday and got stopped for a few pictures! all very sweet people but of note: the other harmony cosplayer who wanted a picture together (i didn’t get their info or anything if you cosplayed harmony aka paruko splatoon at anime boston ‘24 and took a selfie with another harmony on friday hmu)
• also: the two OFF cosplayers who excitedly stopped me for a picture. i need to finally replay that game. For Them
• i went to a kind of underwhelming general nintendo cosplay meetup/shoot and there was 1 other splatoon cosplayer there. who was like, a generic inkling (maybe an oc?). and i wanted to talk cosplay and maybe talk about the actual game but i was very awkward. lol
• today before i left i was playing riichi mahjong with somebody in a team water shirt. so i went “hey, team water!” and we chatted for a bit before getting into the game

i expected to run into more splatoon fans LOL. i overestimate how popular this series is sometimes

 

[ToastThemm]

and how did you meet them

I was actually indoctrinated irl via a splatoon fan who ended up becoming my best friend! From then she gathered more of us until we had a good ole fashion team.

Now I go to an art school and see them all the time, Sometimes Ill casually reference sploon and get met with "NO WAY U PLAY SPLATOON TOO!". Personally its not worth all the debt cause no one ever actually has free time to play with me and vice versa. but tis cool to see people actually exist and still enjoy our beloved squid game.

If thou wishes to stave off financial ruin mayhap frequent local conventions and acquire merchandise from artists large and small, and carry it with you to show your pride. I think you'd be surprised how many ppl irl do/did play this game.

 

[Suchi]

I see some occasionally at my college campus and I also attend locals regularly so I meet up with plenty of Splatoon fans there.

I'm also planning to go to riptide in september to meet a bunch of them.

 

[Deleted member]

first day of school, we could decorate our lockers

(I brought a jellyfish magnet, as in Splatoon jellyfish)

and this one dude just walked by, peered into my locker, next thing you know he's emailing me on my school email

 

[briank913]

first day of school, we could decorate our lockers

(I brought a jellyfish magnet, as in Splatoon jellyfish)

and this one dude just walked by, peered into my locker, next thing you know he's emailing me on my school email

and that kids is how I met your mother

 

[ikebro]

outside of my immediate family, i've yet to meet another avid splatoon fan irl :( i don't live in a very populated area so it's sadly kinda expected lmao
the closest i've gotten was:
1. a dudebro in my grade saw a squid keychain i had on my backpack and asked if i liked splatoon. he wasn't a fan of the game afaik, but he knew enough abt it to know what the squids in the game look like. if i remember correctly, he was a smash 4 player at the time (this was pre-switch, spla1 wii u era)
2. i found out one of my high school friends started playing spla3! ........but we had already been graduated for over a year before the game released. (she didn't play it that often, so i never thought to contact her abt it. she also had big man as her switch pfp for a bit! )
3. i was able to show one of my irl friends spla3 when he visited us, though he was only able to play a little bit of the story mode before we had other things to do. i've considered buying him a copy.... but that feels like a selfish gift to give lmfao

so in terms of meeting people who are ALREADY splatoon fans, i haven't done that. but being surrounded by people vaguely aware of nintendo franchises who happened to hear abt splatoon at some point? plenty

 

[Tinybitt]

There's also the one I met in-game first, friended, played with a bunch, eventually managed to exchange discords via name-changing shenanigans and found out we lived within 3 hours of each other and then met IRL, if that counts, lol.

HMMMMM SOUNDS FAMILIAR HMMMMMMM