Splatoon 3 fans overjoyed at Nintendo’s commitment in introducing Tournament Manager feature 

The official website for Splatoon 3 was recently updated and now includes a note about a Tournament Manager feature that is currently in development. Feelings of elation have spread throughout the game’s player base, who see this as a step forward from Nintendo in terms of compromising with the community. 

The Splatoon 3 Tournament Manager service will help support the creation of private tournaments using the Private Battle feature. The service links Splatoon 3 and the SplatNet 3 service together to help players create and manage tournaments. 

Currently planned features for the Tournament Manager include tournament bracket creation and round progression support, automatic generation of Private Battle rooms used for tournament play, and automatic reporting of match results. It appears to include all the fundamental features that are necessary for holding tournaments, but the fact that this service is actually being developed is, in and of itself, quite shocking.  

This is because Nintendo has had the tendency of maintaining a distance when it comes to unofficial tournaments held by the community. Official tournaments for the Splatoon series have been held regularly over the years, and one of the most prominent examples in Japan is the Splatoon Koshien. On the other hand, the great popularity of the games has given birth to a flourishing player community that frequently holds their own unofficial tournaments. There are even a Twitter accounts devoted to sharing schedules of upcoming unofficial tournaments (Splatoon Tournament Schedule). 

At the same time, these tournaments are held in a rather cumbersome manner, with players managing the tournaments themselves and making heavy use of the Private Battle feature. Platforms like Discord are used to exchange Friend Codes, battle results are entered into Google Forms, and these results are then managed with spreadsheets; a player-held tournaments can be very labor-intensive. However, once the Tournament Manager is implemented into the game, it will be able to handle many of these tasks and significantly cut down on the workload involved in holding a tournament.  

The news of the Tournament Manager service has been received very positively by the player community, in particular those players who hold or participate in unofficial tournaments. Once such player is Redolf, who has held a variety of tournaments and put a lot of effort into managing the player community. They too expressed their great joy at learning of the Tournament Manager in the below tweet, the news apparently fueling their motivation to do their best in organizing future tournaments. 

We had a chance to speak with Redolf and ask about their reaction. Redolf said that the implementation of the Tournament Manager shows that Nintendo see Splatoon as a valuable IP and their will to treat it with great care. Redolf was, of course, also overjoyed by the functionality that is being included in the Tournament Manager, noting that it will provide support for holding and managing tournaments that make use of Private Battles. 

Redolf believes this shows that Nintendo are aware of the player community and, in developing something to support their activities, has made a gesture that goes beyond simple compromise. This is the first time that such a thing has happened in the history of the Splatoon series, and Redolf was very moved by it.  

Since 2023 began, the official Splatoon team has continued to support the enjoyment of the game’s players in various ways. For example, a May update for the game added a Room Creation feature for SplatNet 3. This lets you create Private Battle rooms on the smartphone app and then send out invitations via social media. In addition to adding new content and balance adjustments to the game, the developers are also improving features that allow players to connect with one another.  

With Splatoon 3, Nintendo has frequently shown that they are trying to strengthen the bond with the player community by making adjustments based on player feedback or providing explanations on various topics. The new Tournament Manager service may just be the latest example of this approach being put into action.  

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-07-26 21:04 JST)