The next Splatoon 3 Splatfest will be a Splatoon X Pokémon crossover, celebrating the impending launch of Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet with the age-old conundrum: Grass, Fire or Water?
Breaking news for the next Splatfest! The theme celebrates the release of Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. Which first partner Pokémon would you choose? Grass-type, Fire-type, or Water-type? The fun starts Friday 11/11 at 4 PM PT and runs through 4 PM PT on Sunday 11/13. pic.twitter.com/jmHMdbuHZl
— Splatoon North America (@SplatoonNA) October 7, 2022
Running from 11th to 13th November, the weekend before the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet release on 18th November, you’ll be asked to pick one of these three sides in Splatoon 3 and then fight in the traditional Splatfest weekend format (with a twist for this third game).
Splatfests now play out in two stages. The first half will play out the same: matchmaking your team against another and tallying up the regional wins and losses. However, the second half now adds three-way battles into the mix, with the leading team at that point defending the middle of the stage while two pairs from the other teams spawn on either flank.
As in Splatoon 2, the final score of the weekend will be made up from three categories: popularity (worth 10 points), Open Mode Clout (worth 15 points) and Pro Mode Clout (worth 10 points). Popularity is the straight up percentage of popularity, while Cloud is determined by the average earned by each player.
The first Splatfest asked players to pick between Gear, Grub and Fun, with Gear winning out over the course of the weekend. However, there were complaints about matchmaking after the halfway point, with the more popular Grub team less able to find matches against rivals, and with the three-way Tricolor Turf War battles that appear after that mid-point seen very rarely. Hopefully Nintendo can redress this imbalance, having reduced their appearance since the Splatfest World Premiere.
In our Splatoon 3 review, I wrote:
“Splatoon 3 is a bit like your mum making your favourite meal when you head home for the holidays. It’s been a few years since the last game — while there have been some great improvements and additions, it’s the same old Splatoon we know and love, and that’s still pretty great.”
Source: Twitter
