Kaliafornia
Splatin' through Inkopolis with my woes....
Dude. You do not understand what weapon viability in meta is, clearly. Again lets simplify: Weapon viability in meta, does not consider individual's skill, but the success of the weapon relative to other weapons in its class in terms of effort vs payout taking into consideration the weapons main, sub, and special offensive/defensive capabilities.And that's why we have a crap meta where there's a few viable weapons, and the others are junk, hopefully this will change a bit with 2.20, but that way of thinking is ruining the meta, you must play what you like, not what you think is god tier because other players say, what happened on Inkstorm? Omohide(Memories) won playing what they like, not what meta said, meta in Japan before 2.20 was
"S+ (nearly necessary for a team)
Tentatek Splattershot/Octoshot Replica
.96 Gal Deco
E-liter 3K and variants
S
.52 Gal
Krak-On Splat Roller
Blaster Custom
A (occasionally viable)
Luna Blaster
Splattershot Jr.
Dynamo Roller
and clearly, Inkzooka, Kraken, and Splash Wall are the essential factors of competitive matches."
On most matches BS used 3K, .96, .52 and the octoshot, three S+ tier and one S tier.
While MM used Luna blaster, Range Blaster, Dynamo and a 3K, we'll say Range Blaster is A tier for now, so we have three A tier and one S+ tier.
What is remarkable is that the one with the Luna Blaster is usually the center of the game, because of his style, really aggressive and he moves a lot, if you watch the videos of the grand final you will see that Omohide has a more stable game, and they had the win in their hands since the begin, I think because they use the weapons they like and then make strategies to make that setup work, indeed they have some S+ weapons like walls and the inkzooka, but they prove that question here is how you master the weapon, more than what weapon you use, that's why I say it's viable, if a player likes that weapon and want to use it on tournaments and rankeds he can do it, just because it doesn't appear on S and S+ tier weapon list automatically you have to discard that weapon.
The whole inkstorm shown that Japanese teams has one or two weapons per player and they usually play with the one they like more, no matter map, mode and opponent setup, they build strategies with the setup they have, not based on the tier list like an unbreakable rule.
Also you said we're not talking about the player, but I think that our target is to build ourselves as good players, do you think it really matters what weapons we use if we don't build ourselves as good players? I think the viability of any weapon rely directly to the players. As musician is like If I think I'll be an awesome musician because I invest more money on instruments and setup than time on mastering the skills needed.
If people like that weapon, they just have to take it, they have the prove that S+ 99 is possible with that weapon if you train enough.
Also I'd like to say as a Dual Squelcher main, when I got to S and didn't saw any of them I nearly dropped the weapon, I nearly took the .96 gal, and finally I dropped the idea because until that point I didn't have to change the weapon to be the top layers a lot of times, to deal with splash walls, or inkzookas and dynamos, and then after few weeks other Dual Squelcher on S+ showed in my games, and got top player, proving is the skill of the player that matters.
Saying a weapon is not viable in the meta isn't saying people cannot have success with unpopular or non meta weapons, it's saying that given the playstyle, loadouts, strategies currently in trend do lend towards certain weapons being easier to have success with when up-against similarly skilled individuals. No one bans any weapon from being used in tourneys. If you want to use an e-liter like a sploosh, go for it. In this respect viability means practicality. All weapons serve roles in teams, and if you have to alter the function of your role because of the limitations of your weapon against its counterparts that makes it nonviable and impractical to use.
Also just for the record. The consensus isn't that omohide won because they're "playing what they like, not what meta said." It's that they won because they were much more coordinated, used good concise comms and did not go on tilt under pressure." All the weapons that you listed aren't all S+ tier but all of them are popular in tourneys and in different teams strategies. There is no aerospray, inkbrush, rapid blaster in that list.