After Splatoon 3's demo Splatfest of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and its first official Splatfest of Gear versus Grub versus Fun, the game is facing more criticism from fans. The complaints specifically revolve around the Splatfest content, particularly when it comes to the Splatfest's tricolor gimmick. The latest Splatfest had very few tricolor battles due to the demo getting complaints that the tricolor battles were unbalanced.
While the demo set this cynical tricolor standard, the Gear, Grub, and Fun Splatfest has only worsened fan feelings. Nintendo seems to have decreased player chances of tricolor battles during the Splatfest, which many have said is "pointless" and "boring" when Splatoon 3's entire gimmick is supposed to be the tricolor fights. There are also players that think having the tricolor battles is still unbalanced and the results are based more on popularity than winnings.
What Fans Are Saying
Team Gear winning with 58 percent popularity in North America has made some fans worry. Grub and Fun each had about 20 percent popularity, which was incredibly low compared to Gear. Combined, Grub and Fun likely would have stood a much better chance, but the three-way split may have unbalanced the Splatfest to be more of a popularity contest than one based on battles won. Of course, this wasn't the case for Rock, Paper, Scissors, which had an even split. Fans are concerned that future Splatfests that don't have an even split will just go to whichever choice was most popular.
Outside the balancing issues with popularity, fans have been concerned about clout distribution. In a tricolor battle, offensive teams come first and second if one of them wins while the defending team gets all or nothing. The teams on offense can also choose to do tricolor battles or not while the defending team gets no choice. Some fans also mentioned that the defeating team statistically will get fewer x10, x100, and x333 battles. Others said the attacking teams get far more turf to ink on the maps, which gives them a huge advantage. While the point of tricolor turf battles was to put the winning team in the hot seat, many agreed that their disadvantages were overkill.
On the other side of matters, fans are not happy with how Nintendo has decreased the tricolor battles. Nintendo acted in response to criticism after the demo that the tricolor battles themselves (which pitted two teams against the one in the lead) were unbalanced. This response to fan criticism, however, has backfired. After decreasing tricolor battles, fans are unhappy and say the Splatfests are boring without the tricolor battles happening. During the Splatfest, social media exploded with fans asking why tricolored battles were barely occurring.
The Future of Splatfests
With a near absence of tricolor battles and Team Gear taking up more than 50 percent of the votes, the first Splatfest has a lot of fans wondering what the future holds. Some have mentioned that the team with the most popularity should be the defenders in tricolor battles. Many players that were in Team Gear mentioned that they were placed in many mirror matches against their own team.
Some have blamed all this imbalance on the Splatfest choices themselves, as Team Gear is basically the logical and correct choice for people that want to survive on an island. Gear gets food and fun can be achieved without books or cards. With that in mind, gear being so popular is no surprise. The future of Splatfests and their balancing issues may partly go down to teams themselves. Rock, Paper, and Scissors were lucky in their even split. The developers that choose Splatfest contests may need to work hard to try to make questions more difficult to answer next time. Fans are worried this issue will persist with three choices instead of the old binary.
Perhaps in the theme of threes with Splatoon 3 the third time will be the charm. Nintendo may find a way to settle tricolor battle balancing issues and the questions will have a more even divide of teams. Until then, fans will have to wait patiently to see what's next.
Splatoon 3 is available now on Nintendo Switch.