Splatturns - My idea for 1 Vs. 4 Matches (And other team combinations)

[Aelo]

Hello Kids & Squids. Today I want to talk more about an idea that I have had since the early days of the Private Lobby.

I have always been a lone wolf. Someone that doesn't want to blame others for his failures (a.k.a. bad teamates) or thank others for his victories. However, Splatoon is definetely a Team Based game, and even though I have participated on tournaments and been part of squads, I couldn't take the idea of exploring the 1 Vs. 1 universe of possibilities that could be brought to the game. I hope I'm not the only one to think this way.

I have challenged plenty of members of my country's community to 1 V 1 matches, and they have been pretty fun. However, I have also received bad comments for encouraging players to play and look for 1 V 1 matches, since it goes against the main theme of the game: you work as a team, you lose as a team, you win as a team.

For that reason, I came with an idea which I like to call...

So what's this all about?​

Splatturns (not final name) is a new "custom mode" that I have imagined and I have tried to publicly announce so I can get feedback and get to know what people think.

The objective of the game is simple: play in Turf War or Ranked matches but only one member at a time.

Wait... What?​

Exactly what you heard. The teams can be either 1 V 4, 2 V 4, 3 V 3, or even 4 V 4. Any combination is possible and the other team won't ever be at a disadvantage because there will only be 2 Squids on the field simultaneously: one from your team and the other from the enemy team.

How to play it?​

It's fairly simple actually. Since this was thought to fit a 1 Vs. 4 format, it works like this:

1. Each team asigns numbers from 1 to 4 to each member. In case there are less than four members, asign just the amount that fits the number of members the team has.
2. At the beginning of the match, the player that is N° 1 plays until they get splatted. As soon as they respawn COMPLETELY, the member who is N° 2 is the one that will go into the battlefield.
3. The same rules apply to the other team, unless it's only one squid against a squad of more than one. In this situation, the squid will have to play by themselves and return to action as soon as they respawn.
4. When the last member, member N° 4 gets splatted and respawns, N° 1 will start all over.
5. Fulfill the objective and win!

I think about this as a "Boss Round" in which you have to take down only 1 opponent by combining the individual strenght of all your squad members. Also, it will always be a 1 V 1 which I personally love.

But Splatoon is a team based game. What are the benefits of playing like this?​

I've come to the conclusion that this is actually a great idea if you want to train beginners or squad members, as the lone squid will have to fight different members with different weapons, gears, and skills, forcing them to adapt to the new situation.

Also, training 1V1 on actual ranked modes helps improve your aim, movement and analysis of certain common situations that you WILL be facing when playing for real.

So, what do you think? Is this idea worth your time?​

I'm a firm beleiver that if the game gave us the option of forming teams of just one squid, then the game acknowledges the possibility of fighting 1 Vs. 1 and therefore, it shouldn't be considered a way of going against the game's values. Plus, it's a really fun way of playing with friends and improving with them. There will be some times when you won't be able to play with equally numbered/skilled teams, so what I have hear is just a POSSIBILITY that you can take advantage of, to have a more balanced game, and possibly have fun.

And before I go, if you haven't tried playing Splatoon 1 V 1, definetely do. It's a fun experience.

 

[Flareth]

So, let me get this straight: it's four separate 1v1 battles, but in a single match as opposed to separate matches (thus cutting down on wait time). If, say, I were player N*1, I'd fight the opposing team one by one until I died, then whoever's player N*2 would go next, and fight the other team until he/she died, rinse & repeat ad infinitum until the objective is won or time runs out.

...kind like a quasi-endless Smash crew battle, but without the individual knockouts?

I like the sound of it. Certainly, I can see how it could be used to test a newbie's skills, or perhaps see how a given weapon fares against other given weapons. I for one would like to try it out some day.

 

[Quilavaflare]

I personally love 1 vs. 1 matches as well, and I think this is a pretty cool idea for certain situations. Namely, for training and testing as you have already mentioned. But for a serious or competitive game mode, it has some flaws that would still give the four person squad an advantage.
1. A much greater variety of weapons, which means that the solo player will be playing against at least one weapon that hard counters it throughout the match.
2. The Recon ability would basically break this game mode, especially if the team has some form of communication, as they would know exactly where the solo player is at all times. Even without Recon, it isn't especially difficult to get an idea of their whereabouts. And if the team wasn't allowed to use voice chat (which I don't know how you could determine whether they were or not anyway) they could use the signals to communicate when someone is nearby to the member currently active. In other words, even if you were to ban Recon and Voice Chat from this mode there would still be workarounds that give the team players at least a small advantage no matter what.