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Update #3 [Mon 19th Feb, 2024 09:45 GMT]: Well, the weekend of inking is once again over in Splatoon 3 and we have another Splatfest champion.
In Europe, North America and Australia regions, it was Team Friday that came out on top in the battle of "What's the best day of the weekend?" What's more, it was a pretty close one! The winning team walked away with 24p, while Team Sunday and Saturday followed behind on 18p and 15p respectively.
Once again, Japan was treated to a different Splatfest theme this time. With Teams Red Bean Paste, Custard and Cream fighting for flavour supremacy, it was Team Cream that swam away with 45p and the win. Red Bean Paste came in second with 12p, while Team Custard couldn't grab any points at all.
All in all, it was a good weekend's splatting (unless you were on Team Custard in Japan, of course). By the time the next Splatfest comes around, we would imagine that Fresh Season 2024 will be well underway. You can find out everything that is included in the upcoming update below.
Update #2 [Fri 16th Feb, 2024 15:00 GMT]: There wasn't a Nintendo Direct this week, but there is a Splatfest, so that's some Nintendo news to be excited about, right?
Yes, this is your friendly reminder that Splatoon 3's next team event kicks off this weekend (today, if you're in North America)! This time, the vote is all about "What's the best day of the weekend?", with Team Friday, Saturday and Sunday battling it out.
There is a different theme for splatters in Japan, who this time will be picking between Team Red Bean Paste, Custard or Cream in the war of "Which one do you like?"
Here is the rundown of exactly when you can expect the event to kick off in your region:
- North America - 16th February 2024, 4pm PST - 18th February 2024, 4pm PST
- Australia - 17th February 2024, 11am AEDT - 19th February 2024, 11am AEDT
- New Zealand - 17th February 2024, 1pm NZDT - 19th February 2024, 1pm NZDT
- UK - 17th February 2024, 00:00 GMT - 18th February 2024, 11:59pm GMT
- Europe - 17th February 2024, 1am CET - 19th February 2024, 1am CET
- Japan - 17th February 2024, 9am JST - 19th February 2024, 9am JST
Happy inking, everyone!
Update #1: As expected, @SplatoonNA has confirmed that North America and Australia will have the same weekend-based Splatfest theme as Europe.
Original article [Thu 1st Feb, 2024 10:45 GMT]: Nintendo has today announced the theme for the next Splatoon 3 Splatfest, and it is set to once again vary depending on your region.
In Europe, the event will run between 17th and 18th February, with the theme asking, "What's the best day of the weekend?" Team Friday, Saturday and Sunday are all up for grabs.
If previous events are anything to go by, we would imagine that North America and Australia will share the same weekend-themed question as Europe, but we'll be sure to update this post as soon as we have confirmation.
What we do know is that Japan's splatters will instead be battling over sweet treats, with the question asking "Which one do you like?" (at least, that's how Google translate puts it). The teams are split between Red Bean Paste, Custard and Cream and it is set to run from 17th-19th February.
For all of the information on the upcoming event and those that have come before it, be sure to check out our full Splatfest guide below.
Which team will be getting your vote this time? Let us know who you're backing in the comments.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 60
It's Friday, I'm in love. It's the day everyone looks forward to. Sure, I admit that it's usually a workday for me, but it's still encouraging to know that the weekend is coming. Plus, it's the day when Nintendo's biggest games launch.
So wait, this means that it's not Fryeday after all since Frye is for Saturday? That's a little disappointing. As for Japan's fest, I guess I'll just support Shiver's team. It's just too bad that they had to give Big Man creamy ink again. It looks like they'll even have merch over there as if it's like a collab.
Gotta be Saturday for me!
Splaturday is obviously the best choice
Red bean paste is a traditional Asian sweet made from adzuki beans and is called anko in Japan, it most definitely is not strawberry or raspberry jam. You often find it as a filling in pancakes called dorayaki or in those little fish shaped confections you can get from street vendors, it comes in smooth and "crunchy" versions like peanut butter but because the beans are cooked it's softer than the word crunchy would suggest.
Definitely one of the more unusual Splatfest propositions we've had in the series (though I don't think anything is ever going to beat Front Toilet Roll vs Back Toilet Roll) but I quite like it honestly. Kind of torn on which one to go with too; Saturday would've been my go-to answer in the past but given how I'm at work for the majority of that day nowadays, I'm not so sure I should go for it. Hopefully Frye will finally be able to get another win from this too; I think it's been a year since she last won with Sweet? 🥲
@Croctopus They're promoting the Japanese Fest alongside 7-Eleven in Japan so I assume it's probably a collaboration between them and Ninty.
Voting for Saturday on this one, its the only day of the week where you can sleep in and go to sleep happy knowing you can do the same tomorrow
Friday is also Pay Day. That along with being Nintendo’s game launch day cements it for me. Unfortunately, I’ll expect Team Friday to have more mirror matches because we’ll likely be popular. Hopefully we won’t be TOO much since teams that are overwhelmingly popular fall victim to the most mirrors.
I’ll still play long and hard regardless. I just need two more 10x wins for the gold badges. The timing for Mario Vs. Donkey Kong couldn’t be worse for a Splatoon fan. Not only is there Splatfest that weekend, but Side Order will just be days away! Guess I know what game will fall into my backlog right away…
@JimNorman As @Otoemetry has said, ‘Red Bean Paste’ is paste made from red beans!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_bean_paste
The cooking process is pretty much the same as making jam (sans added pectin) but it’s made from beans and not berries which gives is a slightly earthy (though by no means unpleasant) flavour.
It’s the filling of the confection (Oban-yaki/Imagawa-yaki/Kaiten-yaki) whose name became the theme of Japan’s November Splatfest and there was also a ‘smooth’ red bean paste vs ‘chunky’ red bean paste Splatfest back in the Splatoon 2 days!
Someone at Splatoon HQ really loves their beans!
@Otoemetry @Maxz, I did not know that — you learn something new every day, eh? 😄 Thanks!
@JimNorman Pleased to have bean of service!
@JimNorman I'm shocked you've never encountered it before, given the company your work focuses on is Japanese I would have expected that you'd had a bean paste filled mochi or had some on top of shaved ice... but no bother!
What a missed opportunity to not have Frye cheer for Team Friday.
I am going to ask my cleaner to make my room ready for it so I can finally start playing it all day haha love it!!!
I won't pick Saturday since that'll be the popular choice. Popular choice usually gets all the casuals and same-team match-ups in Tri-Color.
Friday is usually good because it's the start of the weekend and pay day, but Saturday is my choice for getting to sleep in and having the whole day off to do whatever I want.
Saturday for me!
Megadeth - Good Mourning... Black Friday
Def Leppard - Saturday Night High N Dry
and a tie between The Monkees - Pleasant Valley Sunday and Spanky & Our Gang - Sunday Will Never Be The Same
Look I love Splatoon. I love Splatfest. Me and my wife make a huge deal out of them. We do decorations. We get friends, family and people we work with to pick a team, and based on the winner we do a theme dinner with heavy us of food coloring! We tell people it's "The most important celebration of our entire culture".
It's a big, wonderful part of our life!
But ... man, Deep Cut has really been phoning in the topics haven't they
It might as well just be "who's team do you want to be on" or "what color do you like". They need to collaborate with Sanrio again or something.
They think that us westerners are too stupid to know what desserts are apparently, for them to make a seperate lamer Splatfest.
@Porky I think anko’s popularity might take a bit of a nose-dive if the theme were extended worldwide, resulting in a lot more mirror matches and complaints.
Saturday wait, Sunday always comes too late but Friday never hesitate.
I’m tempted to choose Saturday since it’s definitely the most relaxing day, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING beats Friday evening, so there’s that
And I continue to be proven right more and more in my rightful judgment that three-themed Fests remain on an awful downward death spiral until the death of this game and the inevitable 4th Splatoon game. To the lowest pits of the underworld these Fests, they're a pathetic, unfunny joke.
Turns out there aren't that many three way Splatfest concepts that aren't food. Almost like three way Splatfests were a mistake...
And almost like the devs keep dropping and shooting themselves in the foot...
Seriously, these Fest themes are getting more desperate and way more creatively bankrupt. It's almost like the devs really don't give a hoot about 3 and just shovel out garbage for us NA folks and everyone's so done with it. It's like they're playing favorites and giving NA the stuff that should be thrown into an incinerator.
Oh, that's not fair. This is falling on what would have been a long weekend for me, had my schedule at work not been changed due to the crews being reshuffled to balance things out. Now I'll be working for half the weekend, meaning I'll really only have a single day to play this game, yet again. It always ends up happening like this. I get the worst luck with the timing of these Splatfests.
Sunday for me! But a close second with Sturday. if Frye were repping Fryeday... then I would pick it.
Go Teams Friday and Red Bean Paste! It feels so good to be on a Shiver team again.
Unless you have a special attachment to a certain day, you can’t go wrong with any day on the weekend. You might as well go with your favorite character’s team. I’m mainly playing to win two more 10x battles for the gold Deep Cut badges. Still, there is something to be said for coming home from work or school to play the newest Nintendo game. Friday nights are the best.
I thought Friday would be popular at first, but it’s clearly going to be Saturday. Good luck with all the mirror matches.
Saturday is SUCH an obvious choice.
Friday is already half wasted on work and you're already too tired from work to really enjoy the other half properly.
Sunday you wake up with that dreaded feeling of having to go to work the next day which you also have to prepare for and go to bed early for.
Saturday is a day without any worries. You're all refreshed from a good night sleep and you don't have to worry about having to work the next day. As such you can also stay up as long as you want.
Saturday is the clear cut winner and it's not even funny.
Looking at the stats in what people in my friend list chose... okay maybe it's a little funny.
Gotta go with Saturday. Also Frye deserves a W
Saturday is the best day.
Friday since that’s when we get groceries and I get Costco pizza.
Nice, I'm level 1 and haven't touched online yet. Time to weigh down my teams with my ineptitude!
@HeadPirate I agree, the topics haven't been quite as good this game. It may be hard to think of good 3-option questions, but I also think there's just too many Splatfests, especially relative to Big Runs. Only 4 Big Runs a year is too few.
@swoose
I agree that it's much harder to come up with 3, and they are also putting a lot of effort into trying to make it so they can be the same in all areas. "Handshake/fistbump/hug" was just about food in Japan seeing those are all pretty taboo in casual social interactions, but beyond that, they are pretty much universal. But I would also argue it's not impossible to find good ones and this is important. It's already one of your best IPs and was the fastest selling Nintendo game ever at time of release.
Not sure I can agree their are too many Splatfests. Once a month is the prefect amount if you ask me, and right now we are a little behind that (36 days average). More Big Runs would be great for sure.
Friday is not even the weekend... c'mon, this is getting ridiculous! When will Frye win a Splatfest?!
I chose Saturday and I played a few hours yesterday rotating between the normal matches a tri colour matches and I hardly ever fought the other teams, it was literally always Saturday vs Saturday even the tri matches were just three teams of team Saturday.
Let the Shiver haters hate. This is what happens when Frye isn’t the leader of Team Friday. If Nintendo had bothered to make her the leader, I’m sure she would’ve won, even though I thought I was sure Saturday would win, too. This is another powerful reminder that you can’t judge how a Splatfest is going by personal experience. And this also confirms that regional Splatfests have a popularity curse, so that’s going to be duly noted.
No surprise about Whipped Cream winning in Japan. Big Man’s white ink wins yet again. Of course.
Anyhoo, I’m glad to see that Pay Day and Nintendo Game Launch Day wins. Friday night was truly wild for me. It was worth staying up to midnight and finally unlocking the gold Deep Cut badges just when I thought they would stay out of reach. Now my permanently-placed gold Shiver badge will be even more special.
@UltimateOtaku91 same, almost every match I played was a mirror match and the one that wasn't seemed like my team left their brains in the lobby. Constant losses match after match is just not fun, I barely even made it out of the "fiend" stage but I admit my tolerance for enduring the torture of so many losses in a row is not high. I say this as an S+ rank and EVP 200+ player, so I know I'm not totally inept
Shiver again, who would have thought. 🙄 Let's just skip the Splatfests if she's gonna keep winning anyway, no reason to play if the results are going to be so predictable.
FRIDAY'S NOT EVEN PART OF THE WEEKEND GRAAAAAAAAAAAAH
nah but in all seriousness, GG's everyone! I had a pretty good time this Fest myself
@swoose @HeadPirate
Planes, Trains, Automobiles (Based on an English saying, but I think the premise is universal enough).
SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward
Mario, Luigi, Wario
Peach, Daisy, Rosalina
Baseball, Basketball, Fútbol (Regionalize that for USA if necessary)
Land, Sea, Sky
Dogs, Cats, Both (or neither? fish?)
Beach, Mountains, City (Vacations)
Squid Sisters, Off the Hook, Deep Cut (They may be saving that one for last since we’ve already had Shiver, Fry, Big Man)
Jacket, Hoodie, Sweater
I’m not saying all of those are winners, but I came up with them in five minutes. Surely a whole team with more time could come up with some good ones.
I do wonder though, if the western regions get less notice. Maybe Japan decides a theme and then the rest of the world has to decide pretty quickly if they’re doing that theme or something regional? I only say that because I feel the most oddball themes (Handshake, Fist Bump, Hug, and this most recent one) were the result of regional Splatfests.
All that aside, I would never say no to more Big Runs. I like Salmon Run even more than the normal multiplayer modes
@KidSparta
1 - Cars are not that popular in a lot of Asia, including Japan. The saying is absolutely not universal. Very few people in NA use trains.
2 - Not only are they not universally known, but they would need to get the rights to use them.
3 - Can't be used without several sign offs, including basically every single member of the original R&D4 team.
4 - soccer isn't popular enough in the US, and you can't exclude the single most popular sport in the world. Basketball isn't popular enough almost anywhere else. Teams would be very lopsided.
5 - Sure, why not!
6 - This would lead to completely lopsided teams. The global stats is something like 75% of people prefer dogs.
7 - This is going to just line up with regional geography. Also confusing given most popular spots in Japan literally have all 3.
8 - Yeah, this obviously can't be a normal Splatfest.
9 - Climate dependent as to if these even exist in a given area. Hoodies and Jackets are called the same thing in a lot of languages.
Looks like it's actually pretty hard when you think about it. They likely do market research to make sure the teams are not going to be lopsided and losing have to toss out a lot of ideas. They also have to make sure that local languages include all three and none are offensive, and there are no idioms that changes the meaning of 2 or 3 taken together.
But again ... they can and should put in that effort.
I think it's the other way around. The Japan "oddballs" you talk about are both make more sense as a reaction to the global theme. Shakes, hugs and bumps are ALL pretty taboo as greetings in Japan, and what the heck is a "weekend"? Between mandatory club days and some areas still having 6 day school weeks (with 2 half days), the question makes no sense. Add to that the fact that Japan counts from zero, so people are far more likely to visualize Sunday as the first day of the week.
So I would guess the theming is done by a global team, with Nintendo simply changing the local theme when needed.
The last splatfest was way better than this one. This one felt so bland in comparison.
The racism allegations have been proven true
I love how no team got shut out. And 1 category made the difference! The Open results being as close as they were is kinda insane. I don’t play Open in Splatfest so I guess this loss falls somewhat on me. Team Sunday sweeping the category that lands on Sunday…yeah I guess that makes sense.
I was on Team Saturday however, so about 2/3 Pro games were Mirror Matches and 4/5 Tricolor games were Mirror Matches. Splatfests are best when the popularity is split, for a multitude of reasons, but mainly matchmaking. I was left with long wait times just to go into mirrors. I felt lucky that I did get some 10x matches and a 100x match and lost none of them too. So, despite so many matches I went into not having any odds of having clout in them, my streak of getting onto the float continues.
Bluefin was a bit of a strange Tri-Color. Definitely the stage that’s most geared for Defenders, because I think I can only recall 1, maybe 2 matches where the Attackers won without getting both signals. And there were certainly plenty of matches where Defenders still won, despite losing both signals. I did like that you can throw your sub, or even shoot over the wall where you spawn and can make enough points to make the difference. I main Fizzy Bombs, so it was definitely nifty.
Frye fans though..What is wrong with you guys? There’s definitely has to be a lack of skill towards the people who strictly play Frye, as it seems like they’re hurting the team more than helping the cause.
Overall, I was a bit more optimistic on this Splatfest than most. I wish more Splatfests can be regional. There is definitely a divide between Japanese players and Western players, both in popularity of the game and the passion towards the game, which is why we get teams that have no popularity here, winning a few of the Splatfests and it seems unmerited. But here, I do think the win was deserved.
I was Team Saturday, and I actually had some decent teammates for once in the matches. But I really only played the Open matches this time around. I didn't even bother with Pro matches or Tricolor Battles.
I wasn't paying much attention to it, but I have been hearing a lot about mirror matches, both in-game and here. Seriously, what is going on with their servers to where they can't find players on opposite teams?
That’s nuts. The best day is the day most people have to work? I don’t understand gamers.
So glad I picked Friday. Shiver is the best and always will be. If you know Shiver is going to win, why pick the other teams?
The Shiver fans will gloat but the results are getting boring at this point. Idk about Splatoon 1, but Splatoon 2 was never this onesided.
Ah well, it was still a fun Splatfest.
The best part of Splatfest begins! And you don't even have to play a single match to appreciate it.
Let the salt over which idol won (or more specifically which one DIDN'T win) begin.
Was it simps? Japan? Some other conspiracy? Only time will tell! The new cope being thrown around is 'mirror matches' even though they've been prevalent since after the first Splatfest of S1.
I don't understand the love for Shiver. Her design is kinda boring and has a lack of flair compared to the styles of Frye, or Big Man. I think her popularity comes down to weebs, simps and national pride from Japanese players lol
Fun splatfest overall! We did our best team Frye-Day! (Which was Saturday weirdly)
@HeadPirate
1. Liking and using are different things
2. They did in S1 and could again
3,4. I foresee no difficulty getting the rights to properties owned by the same company. They’ve already done Mushroom Vs Star.
5. This is a complex one that would probably need to be different for every region, which may be more trouble than they see as worth it.
6. lessgo!!
7. I did not know dogs went that hard globally, but I believe it (being a cat dad myself)
8. I’m not Japanese, but I presume when asked “do you prefer to spend time off at the beach, in the mountains, or in the city” they would understand the question.
9. Of course
10. Yeah, just kinda threw that in there to make it ten.
You make some good points, but I don’t think any of these would be nearly as lopsided as Gear, Grub, Fun or Nessie, Aliens, Bigfoot (the latter especially suffering from NA really being the only ones that care about Bigfoot).
I also didn’t say Japan was being odd. I think their regional Splatfests have been perfect for them; they’re just things the world can’t really relate to in day-to-day life.
@HeadPirate but, I should certainly add that you’re right. It’s really worthwhile that they put in the effort to make genuinely good three-choice themes. I would guess a whole team has the time and minds to come up with way more and way better than what I came up with in a few minutes. It is objectively WAY harder to come up with 3s than This or That like they did in the previous games.
@Porky This time around it can't be simps or Japan, since the splatfest was region locked and Frye's team got 66% of the vote. The fact is, which team comes away with the best win% is mostly down to dumb luck and maybe some 333x battles.
I would say the rate of mirror matches is a problem though especially with a lopsided poll like this. The game tries to matchmake a 66% popular team with a 10% popular one for every tricolor battle, AND make the 10% team the squad of 4 about a third of the time. And you get zero Clout for playing a mirror match, so yeah, I wouldn't spend long trying to get real ones for Team Saturday either.
I'm starting to think the game should just lie to us and display all the matches as vs. opposing teams.
Coming up with three team Splatfests is harder than it looks. I just hope for Breakfast vs. Lunch vs. Dinner myself, even though it’s yet another food fest. That one just seems like a given one of these months. I hope Nintendo doesn’t cut Splatfest too short in this game.
Regardless, congrats to my fellow Friday fans. Ignore the butthurt reactions crying rigged or foul. We earned this!
At this point, watching Frye consistently lose is getting funny—and that’s coming from someone who chooses her team every so often. It’s just a shame Big Man rarely pulls a victory. He’s the only member of Deep Cut I actually like based on personality and design.
@KidSparta I suggest a Fire Emblem theme: Sword vs. Axe vs. Lance.
Sure, Friday nights are amazing, but Saturday is a full day off without a work day the next day.
Oh well. GG Team Friday.
@NerdyBoutKirby oh, I’m so in. Team Axe all the way
@swoose I was being rhetorical, those I listed being excuses by detractors in past Shiver wins. If mirror matches did count, the most popular team would be farming the heck out of clout off themselves and make it not even a chance for the other teams. Mirror matches don't harm any team, they just were unlucky with the win distribution
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