Splatoon 3’s Museum d’Alfonsino map to be temporarily excluded from official competitions

The official Japanese Splatoon 3 Twitter account released an announcement on October 4 (JST) stating that Museum d’Alfonsino will be excluded from the selection of maps at the Start Dash Cup, an officially sanctioned event. The reason given was due to consideration of fairness.

Splatoon 3 is the latest title in the Splatoon series. The game is set in the chaotic Splatsville, a rapidly developing city located in the Splatlands and where the game’s battles unfold. In Splatoon’s signature Turf War game type, two teams of four compete to see which one can cover the map with the most ink. While the rules are the same, players also have access to new actions like the Squid Roll, Squid Surge, and the spawner drone which give matches even more depth.

On October 4, the game’s official Japanese Twitter account announced that Museum d’Alfonsino would be excluded from the playable maps during the Start Dash Cup. The Start Dash Cup will be taking place between October 8 – 9 (JST) during Nintendo’s Nintendo Live 2022 event in Japan. October 8 will be for elementary school children and younger and October 9 will be for general teams, with each event being held in a tournament format. The Start Dash Cup is scheduled to be livestreamed.

The reason for the exclusion was that “An issue where a certain special used at a specific location inks a different amount of space between the alpha and bravo teams was discovered.” The message goes on to say that while it doesn’t have a big impact, they made the decision to make sure matches are fair, considering the event is using the Turf War game type. As mentioned above, Turf War matches are decided by who inks more of the map, so it’s likely being excluded because it can impact the results of the match.

Museum d’Alfonsino is a returning map from the first Splatoon. It’s centered around a modern museum and displays a number of exhibits. The structure of the map itself is notable for its rotating walls and platforms. When the Splatoon 3 Direct aired on August 10, it was pointed out by viewers that the Booyah Bomb special weapon spread significantly less ink when used near these objects. It’s thought that Museum d’Alfonsino being excluded from the event is related to this issue.

As the official Twitter account notes that the impact of the issue is small, chances seem slim that Nintendo will put out an individual update to fix it in a hurry. The next scheduled update is planned to go out at the middle of this current season.

By the way, this same issue with the Booyah Bomb has also been confirmed on the Inkblot Art Academy map. There have also been reports from players of being hit through floors. Hopefully we can expect fixes for these issues with the next update.

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-10-04 14:55 JST)