The ISSUE with CASUAL and COMPETITIVE in Splatoon 3 

Nice crocs 👍

A lot of people, myself included, are somewhere in the middle of the casual/competitive mindset. We're better than most casuals, but we're not about to devote ALL of our time to a single online game. So, it's difficult to get a match that actually feels good to play in. This can also apply to a lot of online games.

As someone who gets my ass regularly kicked because I am not good at the game, and just want to play the funny squid game, I want this kind of player filtering so damn bad.

This is actually why I stopped playing Splat3 altogether despite adoring the series and having such a good time with it. I hated walking into ranked matches and losing (or completely steamrolling) simply because the skill difference between some of the players was so massive that it made for an awful playing experience. I would always just rage because it felt like the course of the match was left completely up to chance. I was thinking about getting back into the game again recently but I guess that issue hasn't been fixed and likely won't be. It's a shame. Edit: I was just playing the Splatfest because I remembered it was going on this weekend (Weekend of Sept. 8-10) and I legitimately rage quit. Not even playing casually is fun, it's an abhorrent mess of an online system.

Turf is ABSOLUTE nightmares!! I play for fun and to get all the clothes, but turf is SO painful with Sweat Lords who love to spawn camp, or teams who only kill and never ink (THE BASIC OBJECTIVE OF TURF WAR)😭

I think another issue that makes it even worse is the rank reset system. On paper it's necessary to keep players in check, but why does it bring basically everyone back to the same place (S)??? I even learned this season that high S players don't even go down to A+, so basically it mixes new players who just reached S rank with those who consistently grind to S+9, and players who reached S+50 are still brought to S+0, only a few series away from everyone else. It's no wonder why the matchmaking is so mixed with this awful system, and the beginning of the season has felt extra painful getting both pros and noobs alike in my lobbies basically every match.

As a casual, I haven’t won a single match my whole weekend. And I’m not actually kidding I’m always being put against coordinated teams and I’m ALWAYS solo. This would be so nice to have!

The fact that Zorconic had to describe a basic rank system for a potential new one proves that Splatoon 3’s current one is both horrible and doesn’t exist at the same time

Thanks for speaking out about this! It’s honestly important to keep the game going competitively for as long as possible while still trying to maintain a casual audience. I also love the orange crocks!!

I am completely all for Casual & Comp tags; I hate getting sweaty in pvp because I think it brings out an unhealthy frustration. I play Salmon Run semi-seriously instead because I can’t really get mad at pve and I favor co-op in games whenever I can I think my biggest concern would be that this reminds me of For Fun and For Glory in the sense that people would play Smash not to fight but to party and be silly around in Free-for-alls; I imagine a Casual tab would have more than a fair amount of squid parties than matches, at least in Turf mainly. Hard to know for sure until Nintendo executes this for real though

The idea of a casual and competitive setting for search is a nice idea…but the problem comes from the comp community vs nintendo, as the views are entirely different

The issue with the comp/casual tab is that you know comp players are gonna get sweaty in the casual, causing casual players to leave the game entirely

Play Turf war they said, it's a mode for causal players they said, gets put up against someone with a Silver X rank badge

Hi Mr. Zorconic, I just want to say as a casual player, you inspired me to join comp & pick up sloshers. I used to play clash blaster because it was broken but I learned my ways.

Oh my god, thank you for bringing this up! I just got back into Splatoon 3 recently and have been encountering this problem especially in regular Turf War! I keep encountering that one player out of the whole 8 of us that can completely just sweep the entire game in their favor and its been getting demoralizing in regular Turf War of all modes and it ain't even on the "competitive" mode like Anarchy for example. The fact that happens so frequently has been making me ask on what's going through those kinds of player's heads lately.

I cannot tell you how many times ive taken a break from anarchy, joined turf, and get paired with someone who just booted up the game for the first time. Why am i, level 50+, getting paired with a level one? Times like this i seriously miss s2’s matching system

2:50 This is literally the reason I’m scared to even try out Anarchy for the first time. I didn’t feel like that in S1 or S2, but this game is different and my mindset has changed too. 😕

I don’t even know what I am.. I haven’t joined comp yet, but I have a little bit of competitive mindset.. first it was a kid or a squid. now it’s casual or competitive.

I think something not a lot of people talk about is player density. If you've ever been on A rank or X battles, you've definitely seen the "not enough players" message pop up. The fanbase is already split into turf war, 3 ranked modes and if they are available, challenges, there is just not enough of a playerbase in the west at least to split us even more. While the idea works in concept, how many people go to X rank with a casual mindset? If they're not getting the numbers you're getting it's probably because the game needs to find 8 people at around the same level, and if you actually wanna play they're gonna have to pull in a noticeably better or worse player so a match an actually happen after the 3rd message telling you there's no one playing. I'm pretty sure the idea is that you go to anarchy series to risk your points and actually tryhard, while open is to goof around, win or lose barely a few points, and join with friends if you feel like, then they slapped the league battles' features because they had to go somewhere and a leagues only matchmaking would actually just be terrible

Tbh open is like most of the time "casual". Series and X are competitive. Turf is chaos incarnate.

problem is that X battle DOES have that division system, where players are matched based on power. it's why lower-populated divisions, like under 1500 or over 2500 have a LOT of trouble with getting matches, because there's so few people in these power levels.

You hopping into bed with your outdoor crocs on hurt me a bit LOL Anywho, great video! This really is such a No-Brainer thing to add to Splatoon 3, and the decision to rid of "traditional" League to put it into Anarchy Open is probably one of the most BAFFLING decisions the Dev team has made, and perhaps by snorting enough Hopium, there's still time for them to implement a *real* match-making system.

The fact that Turf War puts teams together randomly means you won't get beaten by the same team comp over and over (unless you're pitted against four well-coordinated players; in that case, they should play Anarchy Open or grassroots competitive instead, damn it!) Though the matchmaking shouldn't keep players in a room between matches; if you end up with a bunch of players who are better than you, you're not likely to win many of the next 15 games. Turf War's design, as a mode, is great for casual play, though. The decentralized objective rewards you for more than just kill count or map control (which newbies struggle with, to be frank), and the fact that the turf painted is measured only after a set amount of time means that each team has a chance to come out on top at any moment. That said, narrow maps with lines of chokepoints are horrible for casual play; it means players are punished for not having the optimal compositions. Gem from Squid School made a video about how reducing depth and variety will hurt casual players as much as competitive ones, and as an aspiring gamedev, it's really opened my eyes. Please watch it!

One of my biggest hopes for S3 when it was announced was a casual/competitive lobby split. In both S2 and S3 I'm a solid S rank player, but I don't enjoy playing competitively. And because your rank influences matchmaking even in unranked turf lobbies, I'd get put into incredibly competitive lobbies all the time. I usually play for fun, but it's so hard to do that when even in the casual game mode (turf), you have to be playing at the top of your game unless you want to get curb stomped. It was a problem in S2, and an even bigger problem in S3. I've taken several breaks from S3 just because I don't want to need to constantly be at the top of my game, it hurts my enjoyment of one of my favorite game series :(

Not having an auto rank down is awful too. I deliberately play reckless when I’m at the rank up level because I don’t have fun in the rank above.

I like to think of myself as a hybrid between casual and competitive, because I do in fact play this game to have fun, but this game also brings out a nasty competitive streak in me... And to make matters worse, I suffer from perfectionism

Keeping this video in the back of my mind for reference, been waiting to make my "What I Want In Splatoon 4" video until after updates

Not even joking, this game gave one of my friends depression cause she kept losing to sweats and no-lifes, in turf war btw, the "casual" mode.

I'm a mix of casual and competitive

the way the other team consistently protects the rainmaker holder and then when my teammates see me getting it they completely ditch me.. what mindset is that

All I want is an anarchy mode with no rank whatsoever. I don’t feel like having to try harder than I want to. Even in open you see people using the meta guns a lot

Honestly I miss old Splatoon like 2 especially the maps, balance between both casual and competive play. Now with Splat 3 they just left the Casual in the dust, the only mode I can enjoy casually now is Salmon Run and Story Mode Also since we've been complaining about connection issue for years now knowing them they're not gonna fix this anytime soon and may just be something we just have to accept

bruh I always play splatfest open and I be having to fight people with 2763 hours in the game

Im a splatoon noob, splatoon 3 being my first one ever a few weeks ago. I decided to finally try ranked for first time tonight after hitting level 20. I played 20 Anarchy open battles and surprisingly was playing really good. My problem is the garbage match making and teammates I was put with. I played all 20 solo and only won 3 losing 11 in a row at one point. And from what it looked like was I only ranking up on wins no matter how much better I was doing than other players? That's gonna drive me insane because I actually play to win and could care less about K/D ratio

Great video Zorco! I really hope they add the divisions like you said, we already know it feels really healthy from playing SendouQ!

I had an idea for a competitive casual split, simply, split the maps, if each map has 2 different forms then it could help out both sides, say casual maps could be a little smaller, having heavily protected bases and more gimmicks meanwhile competitive would have larger maps with routes everywhere and less focus on gimmicks (gimmicks wouldn’t count sponges and ink lines those are useful)

I'm a very casual player that only plays turf war and the occasional salmon run shift, I would love to have split matchmaking honestly, every match I play lately is impossible to win.

I can definitely see this issue, I’m nowhere near one of the best players but last Wednesday I got paired against Mecha from last resort. We got ko’d but I was able to kill him 2 or 3 times.

You have improved so much I have been subbed since you had 326 subs and the growth is so crazy keep going I support

i hate when i have to face competirive teams with all those gold badges in a turf war match when im just trying to play a chill game

I never knew that Sendou feature was a thing, I honestly want to improve myself but I'm gonna try that one out As a comp player it's really difficult mostly with how things are now

Thanks for talking about SendouQ! Atm I feel like there’s not enough lower level competitive players who are aware of it/interested in it and it leads to a pain trying to find matches when I’m in silver and all I can face are either iron or platinum teams 😭😭 And tbh, I wish that League or just a tab to switch from casual to competitive existed because it’s insane how I can get matched up Grey and fuzzy, Kyo and bran while I’m just trying to play some open 😅

We need more specific sections like this thank you

This video makes good points, but in general I feel like some people overestimate how good they are and tend to blame their teammates for not carrying them. They want the game to give them teammates over their skill level for easier wins, and feel like that's what's holding them back from ranking up altogether.

5:04 bro is shooting nothing 🗣🗣🔥‼️‼️

This video is amazing! You've done a great job talking about the most common problem of splatoon! You put so much effort in your video's & it makes me happy. Keep up the good work, Zorconic! Also, you rock these crocs

The real issue is that in Anarchy the players matched together are completely random. You don't have S-Rank lobbies. You have lobbies with players from C to S+. They threw out all match making the previous games had. Ranks mean nothing. Even if they did, the fact people can't rank down from losing is so stupid.

What's also annoying is that you assume Anarchy Open would be good for laid back matches on different modes but it is a nightmare since you always get matched with full stacks, making Series the more "fair" one, and it is also the same even for Splatfest where Open is you vs pre made teams and "Pro" is actually the playable one for solo players.

A+ is freaking harder than S

Currently I feel like the skill matchmaking hasn't been too bad (for me). I just want better ping-based matchmaking. I am fine with my friends anywhere on the mainland but there's so many matches someone can just one-shot me, so I assume they're not in Americas. I'm not crazy high power levels, I should be able to match with Americas.

I FUCKING REGRET CHAOS TO WIN

I'm a casual and yeah, it did kinda bum me that online keeps making me pit against experienced players. It's not very fun when I see a E liter user with clothes all having Speed boost ability.

P based honestly. I think this is prob on the larger side of issues, as the barrier of entry is much higher than usual. ProChara can complain about maps all he wants, but sometimes you just wanna vibe and it’s hard to

I think most of the ideas are great and could be really useful for the game, the only one I don’t think would quite work would be the new ranks, there’s a MASSIVE difference between someone who regularly gets 2000xp and someone who regularly gets 2300, and having them in the same lobby wouldn’t really be fair, so maybe smaller differences like 2200/2300

The squid parties kil me. I wish there was like a lobby or mode for people who want to do that.

I play casually in general because being competitive makes games less fun to me, as it stresses me out. Though it doesn't mean that I'm not trying to better myself and learn how to get better, as well help my team as much as I can.

I think no matter what you do, having little Timmy in a match is unavoidable. The playerbase is too divided into many different modes and splitting it up even more will make it worse. Most people who bought the game likely only played it for a couple weeks or months and stopped, only returning for events if they feel like it. Games like Overwatch can get away with it, because it's free, on multiple different platforms and has crossplay. there are just way more people playing. AND still, even with Skill-based matchmaking that considers your performance and enemy ranks, you still end up with Timmies being matched against absolute chads that don't miss a shot on a regular basis.

When im playing casually i actually started going on splat 2 for that. Its way more peaceful, longer wait time so more breaks, and most people arent sweating very much, just an overall good time

this video was so emotional i can feel it inside me

this is why i only play salmon

Me as a person who try’s to get a b rank and due to my teammates I have always been at c rank,it sucks.

sweet idea and sweet crocs dude very cool 10/10

I like the sound effects

W video as always. And nice face reveal on the main channel. You keep going short king

how do you get those insane pictures in the lobby?

I love splatfest because I’m a casual player

I would say I am more between casual and competitive, like I want all the weapons at my disposal (I hate sheldon tickets), specific gears (I hate those 3-4 one ability gears), but damn if I don't like winning a turf war and getting petty to earn my stuff. This is the problem I identified, everything revolves around your performance in turf war, salmon run, and during those special splatfests and big runs, your unlocking is faster entirely on whether you win or lose...so for someone wanting to play somewhat competitive but maintain the casual fun in the game, it leaves the game sometimes frustrating to approach. I also notice unlike many players, I don't use the same gear pieces...I literally switch new ones in periodically and in a game geared competitively, wish it was easier to get desired stuff in the game. It feels like an eternity is taking place to get to where I was in the second installment, like I kicked many teams out as Atlas there but here I find many players now rush to the enemy side before anything else and try to basecamp you the entire match or you get a communication error because of those dedicated nintendo servers that are p2p 🤣. I love this series but I wish it was easier to get the things I want by even a small margin and that certain specials like *cough* the triple splashdown, like wtf is this mess? Then you know they are playing cordinatedly with others when their friends join in, booyah bomb you AND use those darn shield pods, and then those stupid exploding pimples on the battlefield that get spammed periodically, wish they would have done something differently but I do love this game, just wish it didn't end with ten minute penalties for each communication error and a daunting task trying to get 30 more weapons and look they are adding more cosmetic changed ones just with different loadout 🙀😱

See the problem I have is that I can’t play ranked because the game put me with little Timmy’s against torment winners

Seriously I don’t care what anybody says just add CPUs so levelling up for Sheldon Cards won’t be such a massive slog along with skill balancing options.

I used to be casual, but thanks to how harsh matchmaking is I'm now competitive

To avoid the problem for me, is, because I have two mindsets I swap between, if I'm in a casual mindset, I just play turf war, and if I'm in a more competitive mindset, I play anarchy. God forbid me from playing Salmon Run.

I play competitively and I agree to separate the two.

Honestly, in general I just want an option for only going against solo que players without having to risk being wiped by a team that has VC/communication options. (For both Ranked and Turf War) Because that seems so unbalanced when I as a casual player can't really communicate with my other solo que mates, but the other team can. >:" D

They could just make it pretty fucking hard to rank up

Does anyone know why league was taken off? I feel like that was a good way to split solo queues from non solo queues?

I once solo queued into the full roster of Alliance Rogue that was actually pretty fun and challenging but also quite random for me since I‘am a competitive player but not even that far up in any division or smt only my X-battle stats are like Top 1000-500

What if... There's a Hybrid player :0

I’m probably the upper end of casual. So I don’t enjoy playing with lower end casual players with or against. And I certainly don’t like playing against people in x rank. Occasionally I beat x rankers like they talked back to their mother in good old splatoon 2 turf but I never made it to x rank so I never did it in ranked since ranked is filled with competitive players and fake accounts.

It's all story and side order for me. I came back from Overwatch 2 since Blizzard won't even bother offering a fun PVE mode in a perfect world they sell the IP to Nintendo.

So, what makes someone a competitive player and how do you become one? (I understand that the video explains that but I just need a more simple explanation)

I watched this whole video and the biggest takeaway i got was that you charge fizzy bombs differently and that i should try it your way to see if i like it better. I hate my brain sometimes

Splatoon players just can not be a casual competitor 😭

I feel like im a combination of both. I can be competitive and toxic or casual and nice.

i wish i could improve myself while playing casually, obviously everyone wants to win, thats the goal. but i dont want to fight against people who sweat so much like their family and lover will if they dont win this happens on both ranked and casual mode. i wish they keept the old "level" system, that was by far much better then what we currently have. it should never be allowed to have teams fight against no-teamers. (and before anyone says its not a thing, it pretty much is and has been cofirmed by devs and even ingame, try to play a game with a friend or a squad, its pretty obvious you are not fighting teams)

Wait so whats the point of the rank system then if you get put in a match with skilled/not skilled players then

Are there enough player to make divisions in X rank?

I’m a casual player 😅 I’m just here to have fun 🤩

It's unreal how many top 500 badges I already encountered in low S+

Heres a general issue in the game, its how the game "punishes" people with bad internet I know its annoying but, some cant really get good connection through the online services which nintendo sucks at, but then they say its "your" fault It clearly isnt and i dont see the point in doing that in the first place, it just makes things more idiotic

I’m throwing this game in the garbage wasted of fucking 60 dollars

This probably would be solved if we got a proper League Battle and not whatever fuck challenges are doing.

No mention of the glicko system? It’s a real system that does have some worthwhile critiques, but surprised it isn’t mentioned here

I just got this game yesterday and was so excited to play. Once I get the game I immediately head into a match right after I’m done with a tutorial and checking out stuff. As soon as I head into a match and keep constantly playing more matches, I start quickly realizing how bullshit this game is most of the time. Like seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever ran into a splatoon 3 match that was actually balanced. Likes it’s not even a joke at this point, I’m not even playing the game most of the time, the only thing I’m playing is the death screen. Every weapon does a crap ton of damage, every player seems to have point blank aim, and no matter how much I try it just doesn’t seem like I can get better. I just wish I could like this game but, how am I suppose to like it if I can’t even have fun, like that’s all I want to do is have fun.

Bruh this will never hapen, also I think Iam the only one who doesnt think that matchmaking is that Bad, at least outside of Splatfests and sure I get the Occasional numb brain in my team but that basically happens in every game I play no matter if I play the respective ranked ques or not. I like you Ideas for Improving it though, its just not going to happen.

Nah the dirty crocs on the bed

I subscribed!!! And I agree with ya on this! I have had soooo many losses in turf war over this... and I'm pretty good at the game. Probably a novice or medium level player! You can thank story mode for that... but, because of this, I lose almost all my matches... ugh. But Nintendo doesn't give a fuck. As usual... So bleh... Not to mention the lack of solo options both in the lobby and in the private and local games. It can help players improve too. If it were to get implemented... heck, recon could become a training area for each of these modes with octoling CPUs... like salmon run... and it can be like smash bros in a way for recon. I mean recon ligit means to scope out territory and prepare for battle. Basically a "training" with actual scenarios. 1:04

shoes on the bed…..

I've recently conceptualized an alternate method of somewhat alleviating the casual/comp split. One which I think should've been a core feature in the series to begin with: "Practice vs. CPUs." My idea is that it's a mode where you can choose any of the game modes present (turf, tower, zones etc), pair up with 3 other players and fight against a team of AI controlled opponents (akin to rival octolings and agent 3). They can have their difficulty set from easy, medium and hard and will have different weapon compositions every time. In fact, maybe they can be the npc inklings and octolings you see in the hub whenever you're offline. Playing this mode wouldn't earn you exp or points towards your level or weapons, but it could still earn you points towards the catalogue and your gear. I think this way, players who just want to have a laid-back time and goof around or practice and grind for better gear would have a place to go. When you think about it, having a mode like this is almost a staple for the shooter genre entirely, and the fact that the Splatoon series in general doesn't have it baffles me.

Ngl running into super insane players kinda makes me hate the game sometimes. If I'm a modest B+ rank carbon deco main trying out backline for the first time, Im not gonna have fun getting steamrolled by some 1000 hour eliter main running respawn punisher.

Wait I'm confused, isn't his solution just... the current ranking system? Just instead of "gold" and "crystal" it's just "a+" or "s+0"? Can someone explain the difference?