Why the less popular team wins. (My Theory)

[Cullen]

I think one factor to consider is whether or not after picking a team, if someone actually plays or not. Ninja's had a landslide popularity lead, but still lost. (Though the recent win buff certainly factored into this) It could be that a lot of people took it as a given that Ninja's would win on popularity alone, and either didn't play at all, or just played minimally. With such a huge numbers advantage, this was almost certainly the case for a decent percentage of the team. Conversely, some one who picks what they feel might be the less popular team might be much more inclined to play in the hopes they can contribute a good amount to their team's chance at victory, which had to be the case for quite a bit of team pirate given the result.

 

[Ink dweller]

Splatfest were designed for 50 50 population and then win count as a "may the best team win". Nintendo didn't get ready for 30 70 population splatfest

 

[Vitezen]

I think one factor to consider is whether or not after picking a team, if someone actually plays or not. Ninja's had a landslide popularity lead, but still lost. (Though the recent win buff certainly factored into this) It could be that a lot of people took it as a given that Ninja's would win on popularity alone, and either didn't play at all, or just played minimally. With such a huge numbers advantage, this was almost certainly the case for a decent percentage of the team. Conversely, some one who picks what they feel might be the less popular team might be much more inclined to play in the hopes they can contribute a good amount to their team's chance at victory, which had to be the case for quite a bit of team pirate given the result.

That doesn't account for the difference in skill level, unless you're assuming that people quitting without playing is correlated with being a higher skill level.

 

[BtheDestroyer]

I think the initial way points were calculated (wins x2, rather than x6), balanced this better.
More popular but less experienced players vs less popular and more experienced players.

I think the multiplier depends on the popularity shift. like if 95% went to one team it'd be a 10x multiplier and if it was more 50/50 then it'd be 2x. This balances it so the unpopular team isn't just destroyed and they also don't have a guaranteed victory if the multiplier was only given to the unpopular team.

 

[Mateiüsthesquidwarrior]

Here's what I think happens:

In every splatfest, there's a team that typically (oftentimes, but not always) appeals more to younger kids. This is generally the more popular team. A lot of more "serious" or skilled (older) players seem to actively consider which team will be more popular, and join the less popular one. That's not to say that plenty of more skilled players might join the popular team, but because of the greater concentration of scrubs there is less chance of good players actually facing the less popular team.

Except in the case of Art vs. Science, the team with greater popularity always won less matches, even though in Dogs vs. Cats and Marshmallows vs. Hot Dogs the more popular team won.

However, due to the recent changes to multiplication, it will be much harder for the less successful team to win overall.

Those are just my thoughts. I'm sorry if I'm just repeating what everyone's been saying already, I didn't take the team to read all the previous posts xD

 

[Cullen]

That doesn't account for the difference in skill level, unless you're assuming that people quitting without playing is correlated with being a higher skill level.

I don't think skill level of individual players really matters too much in the face of such huge numbers of votes, which is why I didn't even factor it in. Taking Pirates versus Ninjas again, it's unlikely that with a huge difference in popularity, that all the unskilled players voted for one team, and the skilled players voted for another. And it's also worth considering that Splatoon is a team based game, so individual skill level only means so much. Even if more skilled players threw in their hat with one team, that doesn't mean all matches will have skilled players on their team, or that individual players will even work great with every team they get.

 

[ThatSquidYouKnow]

The age where I think that a player has the potential to be anice A+ (heck, even an S+ but you'd have to play the game a lot) is 12-13 years old

Well, I'm 11 and I'm A 89. I guess I'm good?