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So... where is the Splatoon 2 e-sports presence that the marketing promised?

Cuburt

Member
The potential is there and it is fun to watch just from seeing the E3 tournament.

I think it will be a slow burn.
 
I would think that Nintendo is trying to get the scene going in full in Japan first than anywhere else like they did with the first Splatoon. But these more regional tournaments they keep hosting is good practice.
 

mrlion

Member
I'm strongly considering working to get a local scene going. It took grassroots movements to make competitive Smash a thing so I expect Splatoon will require the same.

Eh...but it worked for them because Smash was popular to begin with it just needed that extra push to get to where it is now. Not so much Splatoon, there is no interest in it from eSports, and its not that popular.
 

Burnburn

Member
Where can I watch this? I wasn't even aware this tournament was happening and I do try to watch Splatoon sometimes.

I know the Italian qualifier was streamed in the Italian youtube channel. The english qualifier was streamed on NintendoUk's twitch channel. The dutch qualifier wasnt streamed unfortunately, but the final at comic con might be. If it would then probably in their youtube channel again. I expect any French or German qualifier to be streamed on their respective youtube channel too. If I were around a PC I could give you some links. However a lot of things are always streamed on the country's respective youtube channel
 

Mesoian

Member
There are a ton of reasons why Splatoon isn't going to pop off as a major e-sport. Nintendo's entire system where you have to play for 10-20 hours before you can even team up in game just isn't conducive to garnering fervour for rank. Most people I know who play for money consider the game to be beaten once you get your S rank.

Then there's the bad tickrate and the fact that most people don't even realize that LAN mode exists. Nintendo dropped the ball on ever making Splatoon a real esport. It's a great game that's best when casually played.
 
This "hahah I remember when some people said this and now something else has happened hahaha" comments are among the most silly comments that are becoming more and more frequent around here. Is there even a point to it all? You think these people should be held accountable whenever they're wrong or something?

While I agree with what you're saying, the "colossal failure" Switch posts were definitely real and in retrospect it's hilarious as to how wrong they were given the quantity that I saw.
 
I know the Italian qualifier was streamed in the Italian youtube channel. The english qualifier was streamed on NintendoUk's twitch channel. The dutch qualifier wasnt streamed unfortunately, but the final at comic con might be. If it would then probably in their youtube channel again. I expect any French or German qualifier to be streamed on their respective youtube channel too. If I were around a PC I could give you some links. However a lot of things are always streamed on the country's respective youtube channel

No wonder few people know about this if it's so hard to find the streams and they're all over the place. I'll just have to check more about this then, thanks and good luck anyway!
 

phanphare

Banned
There are a ton of reasons why Splatoon isn't going to pop off as a major e-sport. Nintendo's entire system where you have to play for 10-20 hours before you can even team up in game just isn't conducive to garnering fervour for rank. Most people I know who play for money consider the game to be beaten once you get your S rank.

Then there's the bad tickrate and the fact that most people don't even realize that LAN mode exists. Nintendo dropped the ball on ever making Splatoon a real esport. It's a great game that's best when casually played.

you realize we're talking about the competitive scene right?

why would having played for 10-20 hours be a hindrance to anything in regards to that? these are the top tier players who have probably spent countless hours just getting the gear abilities they want for their weapons of choice. never mind the fact that tournaments are played through the private battle mode which doesn't have any such restrictions though yes most of the top players will be S rank by the very nature of being top players.

and the people that don't realize the LAN mode exists are irrelevant to this discussion because the competitive community is quite aware of that fact

what an odd post
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
It was never going to happen. Nintendo has zero intention of making the policy changes necessary to enable the community to push the game's popularity.
 

WillyFive

Member
Splatoon is fun to watch, but people are not into it enough to watch it. People also watch games they know, and Splatoon is at a disadvantage of being an exclusive, less people play it. Unlike SFV, it doesn't have a built in long following from previous games.
 
Splatoon is fun to watch, but people are not into it enough to watch it. People also watch games they know, and Splatoon is at a disadvantage of being an exclusive, less people play it. Unlike SFV, it doesn't have a built in long following from previous games.

Some of the biggest esport games are exclusive, aren't they?
 
What type of expectation do people exactly have of Nintendo and e-sports? If you're talking about something akin to the Switch reveal trailer then i'm sorry to report that Nintendo isn't very likely to ever support e-sports on that level.

The whole e-sports push they've been doing feels more like Nintendo capitalising on the underground Splatoon scene that developed around the Wii U game in order to boost sales to another level. Same thing applies to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, ARMS and Pokkén. Throw a nice bone to the people who want to get a competitive scene going, but leave the rest up to them.

But actually spending money on creating/facilitating a scene? Well, perhaps this recent quote might give some insight into their mindset:
"What we don't really want to do is step in and make the community feel like we're forcing our way into something that they've built, and that's part of the reason why we've been a bit more behind the scenes in our support," Bill Trinen of Nintendo Treehouse said. "But we're continuing to look at the scene and continue to support it and ensure that both of those communities continue to grow."

That quote alone screams 'hands-off approach' to me. Got it from the following article:http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_...romises-unique-competition-world-championship. Really, read the entire thing. Just confirms that while they've changed their policy, nobody should expect Nintendo to get pro-active with this stuff.

Besides, they've got bigger things to worry about. Making sure the Switch platform gets bigger and bigger and get their bigger series out of the door. Not to mention their mobile strategy that hasn't seen a release since FE:Heroes and their sudden interest in mini-consoles.
 

WillyFive

Member
Some of the biggest esport games are exclusive, aren't they?

Those exclusive games have been around for one or almost two decades as a franchise. Splatoon can't compete with Counter Strike, Starcraft, or Dota, games that people have understood for a long time.
 

Smasher89

Member
8x the amount of setups compared to random other console game to play a single game would definitly be a big logistical problem.
 
Splatoon is fun to watch, but people are not into it enough to watch it. People also watch games they know, and Splatoon is at a disadvantage of being an exclusive, less people play it. Unlike SFV, it doesn't have a built in long following from previous games.
I honestly hate watching it. It's fucking awesome to play, but spectating just doesn't "look" dynamic enough for my tastes, regardless of how much fun I have actually playing it. Not sure if that's why some others may not watch it though. Then again, I don't really watch anything competitively except Street Fighter, so my perspective is probably skewed.
 
I think there's several reasons for it. Firstly, Nintendo seems to be doing nothing to encourage this kind of scene. Something like Capcom Pro Tour or Halo Championship Series would hit the spot.

Secondly, the abysmal online networking features on the Switch, and the convoluted method of playing and chatting to friends on the thing is probably stopping many from putting serious time into playing this with their friends. Why I need 7 other people to play with even one friend in Splatoon 2 is beyond me, and it's outright poor game design as far as I'm concerned.

Thirdly, Nintendo continues to be the thorn in streamers' sides.
 

phanphare

Banned
Thirdly, Nintendo continues to be the thorn in streamers' sides.

people keep saying this but it doesn't make any sense in regards to splatoon's competitive scene

could you elaborate on what you mean and how it would affect the competitive community in regards to streaming tournaments on twitch?
 

daakusedo

Member
Watching high level play...
There were like three tourneys last sunday and with a rare culmination point in a japanese sniper doing an incredible reaction shot.
It's trucking along and growing from splatoon 1, it's all there and getting more interaction with the japanese scene which is needed.
 
people keep saying this but it doesn't make any sense in regards to splatoon's competitive scene

could you elaborate on what you mean and how it would affect the competitive community in regards to streaming tournaments on twitch?

Nintendo has actively sent C&D's to streams for events which host their games. Most notably they tried to C&D EVO when they originally added SSBM to their list of events, causing EVO to cancel it, and fans to get really mad until Nintendo cracked. The reason why streaming is important is because it allows world of mouth to occur. People to post the link on places like Reddit, Facebook, and forums they regular. If Nintendo was real serious about allowing an eSports presence they would build a spectating function into the game and allow you to watch competitions that way.

I see Nintendo making exactly 0 moves to help Splatoon 2 become a respected competitive game.
 

phanphare

Banned
Nintendo has actively sent C&D's to streams for events which host their games. Most notably they tried to C&D EVO when they originally added SSBM to their list of events, causing EVO to cancel it, and fans to get really mad until Nintendo cracked. The reason why streaming is important is because it allows world of mouth to occur. People to post the link on places like Reddit, Facebook, and forums they regular. If Nintendo was real serious about allowing an eSports presence they would build a spectating function into the game and allow you to watch competitions that way.

I see Nintendo making exactly 0 moves to help Splatoon 2 become a respected competitive game.

I understand why streaming is important I'm asking how Nintendo's weird ass youtube shit (which is what I assume everyone is referring to) would affect splatoon's competitive scene. it didn't for the first game and it has not so far for the second.

the c&d for melee has nothing to do with their streaming policies, that was about them wanting their game at evo at all and since then melee has been a mainstay. so that's pretty much irrelevant, not sure why it was brought up. also since you cited multiple instances can you name another?

and there actually is a spectator function in splatoon 2 which has already been utilized by the competitive community
 
Nintendo has actively sent C&D's to streams for events which host their games. Most notably they tried to C&D EVO when they originally added SSBM to their list of events, causing EVO to cancel it, and fans to get really mad until Nintendo cracked. The reason why streaming is important is because it allows world of mouth to occur. People to post the link on places like Reddit, Facebook, and forums they regular. If Nintendo was real serious about allowing an eSports presence they would build a spectating function into the game and allow you to watch competitions that way.

I see Nintendo making exactly 0 moves to help Splatoon 2 become a respected competitive game.

Do they still do that? I had hoped they learned not to after the EVO thing.
 
Do they still do that? I had hoped they learned not to after the EVO thing.

No. The EVO 2013 thing never happened again and they even promote Smash streams now, makes no sense to bring this up now.

Only thing that recently changed was that they asked for Youtubers in their Creators Program to stop streaming their games in their channels, probably in response to the pewdiepie thing - you can still stream whatever you want if you're off the program/using a secondary channel/streaming through twitch.
 
If Nintendo wants Splatoon 2 to be a legitimate eSport, then they need to put the money and resources into making it happen, like Blizzard has done with Overwatch. Have a Splatoon League, have financial incentives to make people want to play Splatoon, help cultivate sponsors and organizers to want to get into the Splatoon 2 game.

If Nintendo really wanted Splatoon 2 to be a serious eSport, there are plenty of models in place on how to make that happen. They just need to decide as a company to follow one fo those models, but they have chosen to do nothing to promote professionally competitive Splatoon 2, and thus no professionally competitive Splatoon 2 exists.
 
As someone who's put in quite a few hours into Splatoon 2, I have to say that even as an iterative sequel, the game has disappointed me in some ways. The tickrate and input lag being worse than the original makes the game feel less accurate than its predecessor, and I personally didn't really like most of the stages that the game released with. Even though the first game launched with only 5 stages, they seemed a lot more distinct from each other both visually and gimmick wise to me than the original 10 in Splatoon 2 did. The stage updates also came out pretty often for the original, which kept me playing more consistently. The things they could have improved on (raising number of stages in rotation from 2 stages to 3, allowing for you to change weapons in the lobby, connecting with friends more easily and for Turf Mode)... Didn't change at all. I really liked Snapper Canal, so I'm hoping that the next few updates are great and that fixes the stage issue, though I think the low tickrate/input lag and the Switch's piss poor online networking show that Nintendo doesn't really care about this game becoming an esport.
 
I'm going to guess the problem is mostly lack of prize money. Everything else is barely noteworthy in comparison.

You want esport? Do what Capcom, Riot, and Valve do: put money in front of people.
 

scoobs

Member
Nintendo as a company hasn’t shown they understand eSports at all. They should just let the community run everything for them like with Smash, because clearly they’re not serious about it.
 

Brite_Boy

Neo Member
I'm somewhat active in the Smash Bros. for Wii U community in California (as much as I can be with university) and I've been pretty bummed that a splatoon 2 competitive scene is really non-existent.

Like I know there are dedicated S2 players out there, but no place for them to meet. I almost want to start it but don't have the extra time or resources to organize meetings/tourneys.
 

KurisuKaatsu

Neo Member
In regards to the thread topic's question, it's very complex why Nintendo is cautious around the competitive gaming scene. This is way too complex for Splatoon and I refuse to write a thesis paper.

If anyone has any questions about the current Splatoon scene, feel free to discord me.
Cir9#4687

https://imgur.com/a/v1t4e
 

Pizza

Member
I actually feel like Splatoon's situation with esports is similar to Pokken's. People are playing them competitively, but if you were to check online you'd be forgiven for thinking both games died in the womb when it comes to esports.

I really think the way Nintendo handles streaming and Youtube has a huge negative impact on how people view their competitive games.

Yeah, I’m not into either scene personally but a buddy of mine who digs competitive games totally is.

The lack of a YouTuber/streams being easily available is a huge issue imo. The switch is big af rn. I feel like grassroots competetive gaming stuff starts on streams these days
 
Nintendo has actively sent C&D's to streams for events which host their games. Most notably they tried to C&D EVO when they originally added SSBM to their list of events, causing EVO to cancel it, and fans to get really mad until Nintendo cracked.

I thought that was Nintendo's legal representatives that sent the C&D acting on their own before Nintendo ended up stepping in?
 

Cday

Banned
They won't even spend money on dedicated servers for a game that would really benefit from it and the refresh rate of the interactions between players is even slower than it is in Minecraft.
 
I understand why streaming is important I'm asking how Nintendo's weird ass youtube shit (which is what I assume everyone is referring to) would affect splatoon's competitive scene. it didn't for the first game and it has not so far for the second.

the c&d for melee has nothing to do with their streaming policies, that was about them wanting their game at evo at all and since then melee has been a mainstay. so that's pretty much irrelevant, not sure why it was brought up. also since you cited multiple instances can you name another?

and there actually is a spectator function in splatoon 2 which has already been utilized by the competitive community

The weird ass YouTube shit will stifle the potential for Splatoon 2 to become a mainstay in the world of streaming, thus by default limiting the potential for wider reach as an esports title, which is what this thread is asking about.

Streaming is the life blood of esports. If Nintendo don't get their act together on that front then Splatoon 2 will never be a huge esports title. Maybe Nintendo don't want that though, and that's fine, but I'm just saying that this is just one of the reasons why it can't happen if Nintendo doesn't change their ways.
 
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