Recent changes to lobby matchmaking?

[Hero of Lime]

Hello everyone! So I have a question about recent lobbies you may have found yourself in regarding Turf war, and maybe other modes if you want to share.

In the last two weeks or so, playing after 8PM my time (PST) I've been getting tossed into more and more Japanese lobbies. I live in the US, California to be specific, so I'm wondering if where I am explains this. Despite some of my friends calling me crazy for enjoying Japanese lobbies due to lag issues, I enjoy it since it feels strangely right, as this was the norm in Splatoon 1. ;) Plus it's good practice and Japanese Turf lobbies don't take 10 minutes just to find more people. Even so, it is a pretty odd development as we all know the game tries to pair you with people in your region.

So! Has anyone else been experiencing this? Do you think the player base has shrunk enough in the last three months to warrant the servers bringing in people from different regions?

 

[SAHSWAMPY]

I believe today in Salmon Run actually I think I did encounter a few Japanese players, was kind of surprising to me :3

 

[Reila]

I also played with some Japanese players. Or at least, they had Japanese characters in their names.

 

[Jon914]

I've been been matched with all-Japanese lobbies in TW and particularly in league round the clock. I also live in California.

Japanese are really enjoyable to play with. I've encountered scarily good rollers (including dynamos) and a more collaborative, "got your back" playstyle that wins them games.

One quirky style of play I've repeatedly seen is spamming Point Sensor all match. It's an under-used sub (unless you're a charger), so it was a bit jarring to see it used so much.

 

[BBGrenorange]

I've only seen a few Japanese players, but one thing that I've noticed is that lobbies seem to fill up faster now, even in EU lobbies.

 

[Pierre]

This might be wrong, I'm just going off of what I think I remember what people have said, but I've seen people wear splatfest tees and I'm in the US, so I think the matchmaking is different now because EU doesn't get matched up with US normally.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Japanese are really enjoyable to play with. I've encountered scarily good rollers (including dynamos) and a more collaborative, "got your back" playstyle that wins them games.

The vibes are definitely different in those lobbies. I can put up with the lag when I have more teammates that really try to compliment my play from what I see.

 

[SAHSWAMPY]

The vibes are definitely different in those lobbies. I can put up with the lag when I have more teammates that really try to compliment my play from what I see.

I agree! I love it when the players are complimenting each other during the match. It gets me more invested in playing honestly XD...

 

[Platinum Inkling]

I hope this starts happening to me soon. It's almost impossible to play ranked or turf war in the afternoon (when I usually play) while salmon run is up. The matchmaking is really a problem that needs to be fixed, and I hope they're working toward that.