How are server connections determined?

[Robochao]

I've been running into a lot of issues with high latency and dropped games. This is especially annoying when I'm trying to trudge through rankings while losing my hard-earned points to disconnections (remember: a dropped game = a loss). This situation made me start thinking: Are there dedicated Nintendo servers to host all of the games to ensure connection reliability? Are there no region locks since all languages can seemingly play together? Or do matches follow the old FPS game structure of making the host of the match be the user with the most reliable connection?

I think the host of a match is given to a specific player.
A few notes to help guide you along my thought process:

- I've noticed the higher in ranking I go (I'm A+ in the 2.0 System now), the more lag-tastic my games become.
- I've also noticed that the higher in ranking I go, there are more Japanese names, more lag, and more lost games.
- After hitting A+, I've noticed the time in which I play doesn't matter: I get a TON of names with Japanese characters rather than English characters.

What's the deal? I JUST WANT TO SPLAT AND SPLAT WELL ;_;

 

[Dish]

There is a reason why all of Japanese players are A+ and above and the lot of NA players below A- LOL Jk on a semi serious note I almost never get into a lobby with there being another English tag so I'm basically used to the Japanese players already. I'm gonna assume a lot of players struggle with lag and can't perform their best or are intimidated by Japanese players and will blame every loss on lag lmao

 

[Robochao]

I assume many of those complaints are legitimate depending on how Nintendo treats the Splatoon servers.

I've been in plenty of moments where:
the Tower warps in location
a Tentatek Splattershot kills me in one hit (on my screen) instead of three or four
a kraken splats me without even touching me

Lag is real! Maybe you're just lucky. :P

I play in New Jersey, US, if that geographic location bears any significance

 

[Shalnark]

I have the same lag problems. I get hit through splash walls, rollers teleport behind me, tentateks OHKO me, chargers get free snipes on me because my movements are delayed on their screen, krakens kill me from far away, the tower in TC "buffers", etc. It makes ranking up much more difficult, and I partially blame many of my losses, especially in S rank, on lag.

 

[Drez]

Yeah one hit tentateks happen to me too. You can notice it when it takes 5 shots to kill a guy using ink strike. It is annoying but still doable. I can't wait for some way to play lagless.