Splatfests: Everything You Need to Know

[Casperr]

Hey everyone! I got the Official Strategy Guide and it gives a bunch of information about Splaftests - what the format is and what you can earn, etc. I did a video explanation, but also have all the key points bullet pointed down below if you prefer to just read through them quickly. If you've got any questions just let me know and I'll do my best to answer!

Splatfests:

• The first Western Splatfests start 4th July:
  • US - 00:00 Pacific, 3am Eastern
  • EU - 6pm UK, 7pm CET
  • Both last 24 hours

• Everyone has to vote for one particular thing:
  • US - Cats vs Dogs
  • EU - Rock Music vs Pop Music
• You vote at the billboard to the left of the Miiverse postbox
• Once you vote you receive a 3 star t-shirt
  • All these t-shirts (per region) will have the same main ability, so no side has a particular "advantage" over the other
  • During the Splatfest you are forced to wear this t-shirt
  • At the end of the Splatfest it is removed from your inventory, so don't invest too many re-rolls into it!

• Ranked Mode and Turf War are disabled during Splatfest and you can only play Splatfest matches
  • These take the format of normal Turf War matches
  • The matchmaking system tries to make the teams vs each other based on their vote e.g. 4 Cat voters vs 4 Dog voters
  • Nintendo will be releasing a patch, due to issues with the first Japanese Splatfest, that allows 2 teams of the same vote to vs each other if matchmaking is going to take too long
  • If two teams of the same vote vs each other, your points will still count towards your personal Splatfest total, but not count towards the side you voted for's overall total
• During matches you earn special Splatfest XP:
  • Win a match: 3XP
  • Cover 200 - 399 turf: +1XP
  • Cover 400 or more turf: +2XP
  • This means by winning a match you can get a total of 5XP
• XP from these Splatfest matches gives you the following ranks. Depending on what rank you finish, you earn the following amount of Super Sea Snails - these are the items you can trade with Spyke to re-roll abilities or add slots.

• To get the highest rank of King/Queen you have to win at least 36 matches (assuming no losses - that would be a hell of a streak!)

• The Splatfest overall winner is a decided via a combination of:
  • Which side got the most votes
  • Which side's players gained the most XP during the Splatfest
• The winning team will get their Super Sea Snails based on the above chart doubled meaning a total of 24 Super Sea Snails are available!
  • Based on the results of the Japanese Splatfest, Nintendo are changing future Splatfests so that those who are on the losing side, but earn either Champion or King/Queen rank, will get bonus Super Sea Snails i.e. more than 8 or 12. They do not state what that bonus will be

There is no mention of how often Splatfests will be, but with the second Japanese Splatfest happening July 3rd, only a few weeks after the first Splatfest, it is looking like these may become monthly events - but we'll have to wait and see to know for sure.

 

[Chocoling]

Monthly sounds fine, it's something to look forward to during the last week.
What happens if you are in the plaza before the event starts? Nintendo's patch notes mentioned something about a thing happening 10minutes before? (Perhaps it boots you out, reloads and wala-Splatfest mode)...

 

[Tigurr]

Thanks for the info! Good to know the details on what's going to happen. I'd love to go for the highest rank if I have the time...

I'm not really hyped about EU's choices. I went with Pop, but I'm not the type of person who gets passionate over music genres (in fact I like pretty much any kind of music) I just...liked the rainbow shirt.

I don't tend to get matched with many EU players even when I'm playing at regular times (e.g. not when everyone is at work or school) so I'm interested to see how quick or slow the matchmaking will be and whether there'll end up being a lot of same-side matches. Hopefully a lot of people will play, and the teams will be (somewhat) even...

 

[Casperr]

Monthly sounds fine, it's something to look forward to during the last week.
What happens if you are in the plaza before the event starts? Nintendo's patch notes mentioned something about a thing happening 10minutes before? (Perhaps it boots you out, reloads and wala-Splatfest mode)...

If you are in the Splatfest when it starts I understand there will be a news announcement and then after the announcement you're put back in the Plaza and everything is shiny! The bit from the patch notes means that some % of people will randomly get the Splatfest early e.g. the Splatfest for you might start 10 or 15 minutes early. I read somewhere that this is to try and balance the server loads better because when an entire continent is suddenly thrown into this new matchmaking code it might get overloaded, so having some people start early will ease the load

I don't tend to get matched with many EU players even when I'm playing at regular times (e.g. not when everyone is at work or school) so I'm interested to see how quick or slow the matchmaking will be and whether there'll end up being a lot of same-side matches. Hopefully a lot of people will play, and the teams will be (somewhat) even...

Me too, I'm VERY interested to see how the matchmaking pans out. I wish I was exaggerating, but I genuinely get matched with about 90% people with Asian characters in their name. I also suffer a lot of lag related deaths or ink just not sticking to the floor, so I'm hoping that Europe only match-ups will reduce that. With over a million copies sold, surely there will be easy matchmaking for continents only... right?

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

I'm really excited to kick off this Splatfest, especially with the patches and other fixes Nintendo's made to make it smoother. I just hope that with three Splatfests at the same time (including the Maruchan one for Japan) the servers will be tough enough for the coming inkstorm.

 

[CrazyDude]

• To get the highest rank of King/Queen you have to win at least 36 matches (assuming no losses - that would be a hell of a streak!)

Nice detailed post but what do you mean by that part? Do you lose Splatfast XP if you don't win a match?

 

[Chocoling]

That video was pretty good as well*
:3

 

[Funen1]

Nice detailed post but what do you mean by that part? Do you lose Splatfast XP if you don't win a match?

Because you don't gain as much exp if you lose. The number he gave is simply the minimum amount of matches needed to get to 184 exp. However, that number should really be 37 matches - 184 / 5 = 36.8, so you'll need that extra match to get past the 0.8 that's left over.

 

[Casperr]

Nice detailed post but what do you mean by that part? Do you lose Splatfast XP if you don't win a match?

Nope, I just wanted to clarify that 36 is wins only. Chances are you will be scoring over 200 or even 400 in the matches that you lose, so in reality you will need to win less than 36 times because your losses will be partially counting towards your total as well :)

That video was pretty good as well*
:3

Thank you :)

Because you don't gain as much exp if you lose. The number he gave is simply the minimum amount of matches needed to get to 184 exp. However, that number should really be 37 matches - 184 / 5 = 36.8, so you'll need that extra match to get past the 0.8 that's left over.

Derp! Very good point. Let's called that a round error xD

 

[PikaBoyTV]

Monthly Splatfests would be AWESOME! It's something everyone can look forward to!

 

[Poxnixles]

Can you still join friends' games?

 

[Mouldywarp]

I'm not really hyped about EU's choices. I went with Pop, but I'm not the type of person who gets passionate over music genres (in fact I like pretty much any kind of music) I just...liked the rainbow shirt.

I basically did the same thing - not really into either rock or pop. Neither choice would've been sincere so I just though meh, rainbow T Shirt, I'll wear it ironically.

 

[Casperr]

Can you still join friends' games?

It's not explicitly said, but I don't see why not!

 

[Ictoan]

The turf difference between getting +1 and +2 bonus XP seems really low; when are you not going to get over 400p?

Not that I mind, I want as many Super Sea Snails as possible, it just seems weird.

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

I've been in teams where one guy was slacking off or getting in everyone else's way, and they kept getting less than 200p for their troubles. I guess those would be the people who need to step it up for the Splatfest.

Still, given how much people are getting their turf on in general I have to agree that bar is rather low. Maybe next Splatfest they should raise it to around 700-800p for +2 snails.

 

[Njok]

Now that both splatfests are at the same time, can EU and NA players join eachother or is it still gonna be regional? Does anyone know?

 

[MasterE]

Now that both splatfests are at the same time, can EU and NA players join eachother or is it still gonna be regional? Does anyone know?

splatfest are regional,

 

[SHUTupNrocK8]

splatfest are regional,

Thank god, the matches will be a lot less laggy :)!

Thank you for this Casperr, there's a lot of questions I had answered here already, but I have a few more if anyone else knows the answers to them. Okay, here they are:

1. Does the EXP stack automatically during Splatfest after each match?

• For example, I win my first match getting 1100p, therefore I'll gain 5 EXP. My next match I lose, but still cover 1000p, I'll get 2 EXP. So after each match, does it total up? After my second match I should have 7 EXP total. I just ask this so I don't have to tally it up myself. I wanna keep track so I don't play more than I have to considering it is an American holiday that day lol.

1. Is it normal Turf Wars with a different theme?

• Therefore, same scoring system and objective, correct? This may sound like a stupid question, but I figure I'd ask.

1. Does it show your title in matchmaking such as ranks in Ranked?

• For example, B+ in Ranked matchmaking.

That's all I have for now, thanks in advance! Also, is the overall winners really chosen by the total amount of votes and score? Doesn't that seem odd? Say Cats / Pop has 100k players, and Dogs / Rock have 50k players... Cat / Pop is obviosuly going to win no matter what, is that seriously the way they're going to chose a winner? That's dumb as hell lol XD!

 

[SayCheese]

In EU the xp needed is 10, 25, 50 and 99

 

[Mouldywarp]

Played a little bit, it's wonderful - the other players dancing in the main hub to the tentacle twins god awful J-Pop. Hilarious! Gonna leave it for tonight because it's Saturday night but will be on it all tomorrow (with a hangover). Nice to play turf war again as I've been on ranked the last few weeks. Forgot how much more relaxed it is!