#iyho series

[rhapsody-crossing]

S2: IYHO Tournament - A Reflection [Part 1]

Splatoon 2: Ink Your Heart Out Tournament - A Reflection (Full series can be read under this tag)

On 26th May 2018, Malaysia held its first online Splatoon 2 tournament called Ink Your Heart Out. The tournament was organised by a small group of friends in hopes to raise awareness for Splatoon 2 as well as to liven up things in Splatoon Community Malaysia. 

Turf War-- a 4v4 mode in which victory is decided upon which team inked majority of the ground-- was the chosen mode for the tournament to lower the barrier of entry, allowing players both experienced and new to join.  

In the midst of trying to get friends into forming groups for the tourney, I got roped into a team myself and begun a memorable journey that I’d hope to eternalise here:

0) Team Members

slap - The captain of the team (who doesn’t act like captain). If life is an anime, slap is more of a bulliable/butt monkey character of the team where we poke fun of him (in an affectionate manner). Likes drawing holes on the corner. Can be serious when he wants to. Uses Dynamo Roller.

louhai - Enthusiastic Ink Brush user, a social butterfly. His positivity is infectious and inspiring to both his teammates and opponents. His gung-ho attitude makes up for his inexperience; he’s always eager to fight strong opponents as it empowers him to improve his combat skills. All these qualities was why I roped him into the tournament.

Low - Skilled Dualies user, and one of the main reasons I was roped into this team. His participation in something competitive comes as a surprise, but Low is a companion I trust to fight by my side. As a S ranker, his combat skills is honed to the point of being instinctive. Our team’s main slayer.

FreedomTan - Affectionately known as Furi to us. A single registrant who was adopted by our team one week before the tournament. Her inclusion into our team was a blessing in disguise. As another S ranker, her skills greatly supports the team. Uses Octobrush and Clash Blaster.

And then, there’s me. I took one for the team by playing NZap 89. Unlike the others (whose role is to have fun/kill as many as they want), my role was to turf and harass others with Tenta missles. I would like to think of myself as the mediator who balances all, the grandmother who is attune to my team’s feelings, the bridge that connects everyone, the information gatherer, trainer, and a bit of a schemer.

1) How did it started?

It all started with me trying to encourage friends to join, but the ball started rolling when slap invited Low. There were some... complications which will not be addressed here just to be safe, but all was resolved with the blessing of an organiser, and I then joined the team.

With three members on the tow, we needed one more. We invited louhai.

slap was chosen to be captain because Low can’t due to reasons, I’m part of the organising committee (OC) and wanted to give myself some leeway in case I had to help out with the tourney, and louhai have three kids to raise. Admittedly, I’d hoped that him being a captain would also give him some form of responsibility it didn’t.

Almighty Goddess was what slap named our team, West Mountain Tofu was what louhai wanted. Low voted for the former, I changed our team’s name to the latter due to having OC rights, hah.

2) Inner Struggles

In the beginning, team morale was pretty easygoing. slap and louhai were really chill about the tourney, especially with Low and I on team. It’s infuriating but very human.

Aside from Low, each members have their struggles.

slap's major struggle was shaking off skill rust and motivation. The tournament is especially hard on slap as he struggles to shake off the rust on his skills, it’s admirable that he tried but he could never really play Splattershot Pro like he used to. His greatest nemesis isn’t other opponents, but the shadow of his former self... and this affects his motivation. 

louhai’s struggle is his inexperience in the game itself. He shook off his rust easily despite not playing for so long, and using Ink Brush gave him strength as said weapon was inspired by a certain strong Singapore player. The major problem was his gap of knowledge that could have made his life easier, but he makes up for it with his willing-to-learn(-as-long-as-it’s-simple-enough-to-understand) attitude and has high motivation to do so.

My struggle, though, was using NZap 89. As I’m used to weapons that doesn’t require much aiming (Tri-Slosher, Roller, Rapid Blaster), NZap was a pain to use. Fortunately, I played more of a support role... but sometimes, it could take its toll on motivation. 

In my experience, playing a support role means accepting to be an unsung hero. Players will generally be awed at people’s strength, reflex and skill. Everyone wants to be a hero, making high kill counts and shit. In my early tRO experience, everyone wants to be an Emperium breaker so that their names will be broadcasted throughout server when they broke the Emperium. No one gives a shit on support roles because it’s boring when support roles are usually what defends the castle, heals one's wounds, turfs the ground, provides escape routes, or splats someone behind your comrade’s back. 

Yet, sometimes, it’s enough when it’s just one person who knows what you’re doing and believes in you. As such, I appreciated Low’s presence in the team, for he was the only teammate who understood the value of support, and that itself was enough for me to be strong for others.

3) Two Weeks Before Tourney - Making the Gears Turn

It was agreed that everyone really wanted the eshop $20 prizes. So everyone's here to win. Therefore, our goals seems to be aligned!

On that particular month, there were three consecutive weeks (instead of following the usual once a month pattern) of TMNT themed Splatfests, which was a blessing as it gives tons of Super Sea Snails and allows us to train as a team. To explain, one cannot team up with friends in normal Turf War modes (you can be in the same room, but 4v4 match-ups are random), one can only do so during Splatfest. We had a pretty good run on 1st Splatfest, but that only bolsters too much confidence on the other two, prompting one to skip the 2nd Splatfest. 3rd Splatfest practice was bad due to connection error hell.

In order to keep the team on their toes, daily training sessions with other teams were organised two weeks before the tourney.

I had thought that having a routine session may instilled some form of discipline and interest in polishing their skills. It certainly worked on louhai (who would then develop a habit to challenge others PERSONALLY like a shounen anime hero), but not so much on slap (no, his struggles were more personal, and required more reflection on his part). 

We continuously trained with other teams. Ipoh team, GuGu Clan (one of the official tourney participants), MwS. Strategies were changed, limits were tested. I dropped tri-slosher and opted for NZap 89, Low continued honing his dualies skill, slap tried to work off his rust and settled in learning Dynamo Roller, louhai swapped Ink Brush Noveau for Ink Brush.

Beginning was hard, having to work through a team's... dismotivation? It just feels that the team wouldn't budge unless they were told to do so, which was in turn worrisome.

Team practice was exciting, but the constant matches ate into my sleeping time. By the time Wednesday came, I was tired and on the verge of burning out, I came to the point where I thought that maybe I'll just take a break, because I was tired and everyone's probably tired, and I couldn't win this, I couldn't beat their dismotivation.

Turns out that when one gear spins, the other gears spin as well. Because come Thursday, louhai excitedly told he found us a Singapore team to practice with, and slap even used my words of encouragement to him on me, something like polishing skills together. It is unsure whether the latter is saying it out of sarcasm or he felt my efforts indeed, but I took it as a nourishment and fought on.

4) One Week Before Tourney - Gears Connected

Word has it that everyone except one registrant found a team.

On Monday, one of the organizers came to us and ask if it's alright to adopt this single registrant. We agreed. Personally, I feel that this decision set us to a path of victory.

Admittedly, I was worried. There are only 4 prizes, and Spla2n in general is a 4v4 game. If one joins in, there is a chance that one person will not get the prize... but the feeling of not being able to find a team despite their interest is worse, and I thought that if we had to cross that bridge, I would probably give up mine to this newcomer as long as they contributed.

Nevertheless, the inclusion of Freedom gives me more excuse to organize more practice to test out team dynamics, and in terms of motivation and skills, Furi was a firepower to be reckoned with. (P.S. the nickname Furi was derived from my attempts to romanize Freedom’s name into Japanese (Furidomu), it picked up; also doubles as a subtle pun on what a Fury she is). 

However, the inclusion of Furi also lowered slap and louhai's confidence, who thought their skills as inferior. slap turned to the corner more often, and louhai offered to be a sub due to their somewhat similar main weapons (Furi mains Octobrush, louhai mains Ink Brush). Low and I put a stop to those attitude and utilized this opportunity to make slap work hard.

On Tuesday, we trained with MwS. 

On Wednesday, our team also received a wake-up call in the name of Team Avengers, and to be honest, I half expected that. Sapphire is an S ranker, Fishy is brilliant at support, Meizi is an aggressive vanguard. Meanwhile, they have a new member name Maiki but her positioning is top-notched and her aim is true. We had a rocky beginning of losses, only to end with some victories in the end. At this time of writing, I forgot the main reason of our loss. Low reminded me that the missing puzzle was “me”, that I wasn’t in battle until one of our members went to bed... but I vaguely recalled that Low wasn’t in battle either? Or perhaps we had rotate spectates that not all three experienced players are playing together...? Nevertheless, the fact that we won gave us great confidence that the final prize would be ours.

On Thursday, the desire to improve further caused louhai to discover the finer details of gear abilities. Due to his confusion in our attempts to explain re-rolling and add abilities, I wrote him a guide that he never read. I decided to let him stumble his way through the game, because it’s how he learns best.

We trained with Team 7 (who is not in their full power) and LittleSotongs (who is in their full power). The training allowed us to ascertain their skills, and our confidence grew tenfolds more.

On Friday, I took a break from training to attend OceanInk Battle (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/265356637) as a Knife and Banana member.

Saturday was the day of the fateful tournament...

To be Continued...

[rhapsody-crossing]

S2: IYHO Tournament - A Reflection [Part 2]

(Continuation from THIS post) (See all series posts HERE)

5) Some Tournament Facts

There are a total of 11 teams and 50 squids who signed up for the tournament:

The tournament runs in a Double Elimination format, allowing everyone at least one chance to continue battle after a loss. Using Challonge, the brackets below were created:

6) Dawn of the Battle

What makes one join a competition?

I joined competitions with a faint hope of winning, but winning was never the main goal. Honing my skills and just giving it an attempt was usually were my priority.

However, my reason to join Ink Your Heart Out is different. I was prepared to win, and I really want to win because, despite all the paranoia, I have great faith in my team and skills that we can do it, and that it is still “within reason” to win. That, perhaps, was why I pushed my teammates to practise.

On that fateful day of the battle when the brackets are released, louhai drew a poster of our upcoming battle versus Team 7:

It garnered some laughs and merriment, and also inspired Team 7′s artist to draw a picture in return:

Furi also made her own, to symbolise how hard we train as well as a jab’s to louhai’s tofu drawing:

The fanarts and louhai’s merrymaking made the community lively for the day.

The exchange of words with BK (a fellow OC and also Team 7 member) reminded me that, sometimes, team competitions doesn’t have to be all about winning and rivalry, but it’s also about bonds one forged and gaining something out of an experience.

Team 7 was filled with members who were strangers in the beginning but the tournament made them into a tight-knitted group of friends. The exchange of goodwills resulted in two teams deciding that, win or lose, we would take a group photo to symbolise our sportsmanship and friendship post-battle.

Facing this, I really hope that all contestants would gain something positive out of it...

6) To Battle!

Pre-battle moments are always scary. It is said that one of the teams had two members got sick from the pent-up tension (one vomited, one had stomachache).

Nevertheless, Team Tofu was ready. Furi rushed dinner, slap went to McDonald for better internet coverage, louhai tried turning on Do Not Disturb function (but failed), Low moved his monitor closer to the modem, I lit a josstick in a prayer room.

Hell yeah, we’re ready.

vs Team 7 (BK, Mazur, BlackKri, Ray, [ ])

BK and I are from the OC. We have played on the same side as companions, and have also fought on opposites as friendly enemies. As such, I knew that he is not easy to be trifled with.

His other teammates, though? I wasn’t too familiar.

Though I have faced Mazur in training, I knew his name for a while as he’s been a rant topic of a friend, so I knew he’s at least not new. He’s a cheeky player, alright, smacking people with his trusty roller.

I have played with BlackKri in a Malaysia Splatoon Gathering few months ago, but wasn’t sure of his current ability. Ray, on the other hand, was a mystery until our match (a solid Brella user!). [ ] is a substitute player who was still exploring the game.

The match begun with a face-off between me, Low, Furi and slap vs BK, Mazur, BlackKri and Ray.

There wasn’t much concern. I left the killing to the others as I turfed the ground. Port Mackerel was a familiar ground, being one of maps in the initial release. We took control of the majority of the map quickly, though they managed to wipe us all out once. The paths are so narrow that my Tenta Missiles hit their mark often, even getting 2 kills in the end. I did really well in this one!

(Note: To explain the stats below, the percentage is how much control each team have on the ground. The three figures beside the player’s name are kill counts, death count, and ability usage count.)

Second match in Manta Maria was close. Low disconnected halfway through the match, but the three of us managed to secure a close win.

We took a group photo post-battle.

Slap complained about the necessity of taking screenshots. It was later revealed that he had forgotten to bring his Switch and phone charger to McDonald. This caused a mild freak out among our group, heck, I was tapping so furiously on my phone that I accidentally tapped yes to a phone system update. My Splatoon 2 runs on phone hotspot. I was out of commission.

When Furi joined the tournament, I expected louhai, Low or even slap to be subbed due to connection issues. It was an irony when -I- had to be subbed instead. To this day, the thought amuses me so.

vs EPDS (Eddy, BE0314, PG, YukiSaki)

While I didn’t get to participate the battle, I wasn’t too worried about this round; EPDS is a team from Johor that comprises mostly of newbies.

As such, the following statistics are pretty self-explanatory:

Low mentioned it was a massacre, but it gave slap some time to shine.

Nevertheless, the members (particularly Eddy) did show some promise, except their goals and motivation weren’t aligned. I can only hope they would learn from this tournament and fight on.

vs GuGu Clan (APLeu, Pochi, Eddeh, Ki-ra, flurk, Rix)

APLeu is yet another member of the OC, and any apples from the OC are pretty strong. Pochi is an ACNL friend whom I’d witnessed her growth in Splatoon 2. Eddeh I’m unfamiliar with, but it is said that Ki-Ra is apparently new and also the main reason why GuGu participated the tournament.

(This was also the group that had two members sick from tourney stress).

My phone had not finished its update, so the others have their fun on the first match.

Come second match, I was up again. APLeu mentioned that their team morale was pretty down, so I decided to chill turf instead of doing my best. Had a bit of fun shooting at APLeu and falling off the ledge. :x

vs littleSOTONGS (sotongSTAR, jp_BoomSS, siang, Onnzai, LIMXINZHE)

Initially, we predicted that we would be facing Avengers in the semi-finals.

So, when littleSOTONGS beat Avengers, puzzlement filled us. Was it due to the lack of turf coverage in Avengers’ part? Or was littleSOTONGS just that tough? We could only find out in battle.

A quick match was enough to find out that the real threats are sotongSTAR and jp_BoomSS. Remove these pillars, and the team crumbles.

The perks of main-ing a weapon is that you knew the limits of said weapon and the potential strategy that comes with it; facing them felt like facing myself, for one uses my main weapon Tri-slosher and the other my old main Splat Roller.

I had a lot of fun on the first match as I crippled jp_BoomSS’ curling bombs sneak attack and danced around his rolls.

Match 2 was a bigger challenge as Kelp Dome is a wider map. There were some power struggle in the beginning, but it all ended in our favour. Incidentally, I was able to harass them with Tenta Missiles a LOT. The match was ours.

After this match, we had some time to rest as loser brackets had yet to sort out its winner. We waited.

(TBC)

[rhapsody-crossing]

S2: IYHO Tournament - A Reflection [Part 3]

PART 1 is here. PART 2 is here. This written series now has a tag #iyho series

7) Unexpected Champion of the Loser Bracket

If Ink Your Heart Out event is a anime, I would dedicate an episode or two to SST (Sotong Serba Tahu). Their captain, Riderman, used to be an active player but stopped due to university and life. Dinie is one of the rare badass female gamer who shows her skills with action instead of bragging. Jazmi was a skilled A ranker brush user (probably an S now). Three of them, along with a few others from the OC, were part of MAWS-- a team created for a SEA Tournament held on April. Malaysia did not do well on that tournament, but their bonds held strong and true. As such, Riderman’s return is equivalent of seeing a retired yet respectable general picking up his blade again and called his companions to arms for this upcoming war. They took in a newbie name Heraan as their fourth member.

SST lost to littleSOTONGS in the winners’ bracket, most likely due to the lack of coverage or connection issues. They tore through the loser bracket by defeating EPDS and INKvaders with a brilliant display of skill and team synergy that was almost touching to watch. It was unfortunate that they encountered an obstacle in the form of member disconnection, which led them to forego the match against Avengers...

On the other hand, Harapan’s experience was the opposite of SST. They encountered disconnect issues when battling Avengers in the normal bracket, which landed them on the loser’s bracket. Nevertheless, they powered through their opponents, beating Team 7, Gugu Team, Avengers and littleSOTONGS with a clean 2-0. It is also well noted that the teams they defeated contain at least one OC member, so my OC group chat was filled with awe and surprise of their skills and victory.

From surface, Harapan seemed ordinary: only their captain najmuddin and Afif were level 50s. syamin is in his late level 20s but is amazingly good at slaying. Rais was the last and latest addition, and he’s only ONE week into the game. We would later learn that captain najmuddin is actually part of the police force in real life. What happens when a police officer coins strategies in Splatoon 2? Apparently, it results lots of victory in a form of team synergy.

Harapan was like the black horse, the unexpected final boss. True to their namesake, waiting for them to start was akin to waiting for Malaysia’s GE14 votes to be tallied (their matches were delayed for an hour due to prayers, and was again further delayed due to connection issues). And yet, true to their namesake, they defeated almost everyone in the loser brackets much to everyone’s surprise.

If Avengers had won, we would expect a tough fight with some confidence that we could win. But Harapan threw every prediction out of the window, so the only way to find out who won was through the battle itself.

8) Finals - First Set

When the time came, Low was suffering from disconnect issues. As such, slap, louhai, Furi and I proceeded ahead.

It was terrible. I felt as if I was locked by their range. They were never alone, and the missiles kept coming. The whole match resulted in our first tournament loss:

Our team went on a state of panic. Everyone demanded for Low to come, poor connection be damned. Furi and Low were the pillars of slaying, so if both of them were on, everything should be okay, right?

What resulted was a close match but a loss: 

Harapan won.

9) Finals - Second Set

What almost everyone had forgotten is that this tournament runs on Double Elimination format, meaning everyone gets a second chance, also meaning Tofu team had one more attempt. NCY and I had to stop everyone from dispersing in order to proceed to the Final match.

However, Tofu took a hit in the morale: to louhai, Furi and Low were invincible, and he felt like the weakest link. He wanted to be subbed out so that slap could play and turf, but the four of us rejected that idiotic and paranoid notion (”because bby”, I wanted to tell him, “one does not turf with Dynamo”). For the past week, we have seen louhai worked hard, and we trusted louhai with our backs. If we were to compare to ink brush’s sneakiness and Dynamo’s AoE, we needed the former more. Even slap could see that.

(At that moment, I took an internal hit in my weapon choice and skills as well. I chose NZap to better support my teammates in turfing as well as to give louhai and slap the freedom (hah, pun unintended) and pressure to kill, but this comes with an exchange on my ability to aim and kill more efficiently. If I had stuck Tri-Slosher, would things have changed? If I had more practice on aiming, would we not have suffered those loss? If I had took ranked more seriously, could we have won...? 

Unbeknownst to my teammates, I was really conflicted, but louhai was freaking out, and that itself gave me the strength to be strong.) 

Except, we were unfortunate to have gotten Walleye Warehouse as our next map. Walleye Warehouse is a narrow place with tons of alleys and tight spots, and very little place to run. In short, it was a terrific place for Tenta Missiles and long range users. I tried to sneak, but my poor judgment and aim got myself killed. louhai managed to snuck past last minute, but it was too late:

The second match would be the decider. If Harapan won, they would be champion. If Tofu won, then we may have chance to win the overall tournament.

“S’ok let’s do our best.” was what I imparted. 

As if they took it literally, Low changed back to his main weapon Dapple Dualies Nouveau. Furi and louhai returned to their Octobrush Noveau and Inkbrush Nouveau roots respectively. If Nouveau is a real brand, they ought to sponsor us as their spokesperson. 

Moray Tower is one of the oldest maps, appearing in both Splatoon 1 and 2. It is an interesting map with two tall buildings with narrow paths and a rather tight middle. It is by no means as constricted as Walleye Warehouse, but it allows for a lot of ambushes and backdoor attacks, and with harder-to-aim Tentas. 

In a sense, the map was advantageous to us: Low charged forward as if he owned the territory, louhai followed behind and did what he does best-- sneaking and ambushing unsuspecting peeps, Furi was a mixture of defensive and aggressive play (while assisting me with Tenta), and I did what I usually do best a.k.a support (except with much more confidence as Moray Tower is a familiar territory). It also helped that one of my favourite songs, Riptide Rupture was playing, so I was especially pumped.

The middle was controlled well, with Low and louhai invading their tower and slaying most them. Harapan was thrown into a disarray as they were not able to charge their specials fast enough. All in all, we secured a victory in this one:

At long last, the final match. If everyone was sleepy beforehand, they were definitely awake after this match. Whoever wins this would be crowned champion. 

When Manta Maria was chosen, I was relief. The ship is spacious with plenty of place to climb. It will be hard to aim Tenta Missles in this one, but it will also be easier to charge them. it also allows a few opportunities for backdoor attacks, which Low and louhai could use.

With well wishes from the OC, and an encouragement threw to the team... we proceeded towards the final battle. 

Unlike other teams, Tofu Team did not do voice chat during matches. This was due to a majority of us using hotspots, and we wanted the connection to be fully utilised in our matches.

And yet, during the penultimate and final battle, it was as if there was an unspoken agreement between us. That Low and louhai would charge forward, that Furi would maintain a defensive position in the middle, that I would be entrusted in the turfing of our base.  

The final battle that felt as if all gears have connected, a continuous dance between us where everyone watched each other’s back. It was our unspoken synergy against their trained synergy. 

We pincered our enemies and got pincered in return. I aimed my Tentas at them, and was aimed in returned. We killed our teammates’ slayer and got slain in return; an endless cycle of reacting, splatting and turfing...  

Three minutes flew, we got our results:

West Mountain Tofu is the champion of Ink Your Heart Out Tournament!

P.S. Full recording of the both Final Sets can be seen here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/268577433

9) Overall Results

10) Aftermath

I woke up the next day with a huge migraine from the lack of sleep. I was also greeted by tons of positivity and congratulatory messages by others.

Yes, Tofu team received much congratulations, mostly thanks to the goodwill that louhai garnered with the community as well as my subtle connection with the OC.

Speaking of louhai, he made a HUGE heartfelt thank you Facebook post to the OCs and quickly befriended every other players on Switch. This man has continued to form connections and hone his skills in hopes to become a role model for the players of his state. He has big dreams for Johor community, so I doubt he would stay as a Tofu... Or perhaps he would make a Tofu Team version 2? Regardless of his choice, I wish him best of luck, as it may be a little hard to get us “past champions” together.

For one, slap is not a dedicated player. He has moved on to Detroit: Become Human as soon as the tournament ended.

Secondly, it would be difficult for Low to join due to some complications.

With Low gone, and the fact that the OC actually needed more assistance, I would like to focus more on assisting in the development of Splatoon 2 Community and its events.

On the other hand, Furi was in for a long haul. louhai’s heartfelt post made her admitted that she had been a solo bird in Splatoon 2, that she was so close to quitting yet decided to give the tournament a try. She was tremendously glad to have found us, and we were tremendously glad to have adopted her. It was without a doubt that Tofu team was happy to have her, that I was happy to have gained a friend in her! The fact that her workplace is 10 minutes away from my house means meeting up with her is relatively easy, heck, we actually met up for dinner that Sunday evening to celebrate our victory.

The group chat for Western Mountain Tofu remains for a more Spla2n-centric discussion, group-play invitations and Salmon Run hostings. 

On a final note, I made a plea on the rewards towards the OC-- as all five of us had done battle, everyone in the team deserved a prize, so could the OC kindly request an additional eshop card from the sponsor...?

The request was approved by the sponsors, and our Splatoon 2 life continued oh-so-peacefully.

END

[rhapsody-crossing]

Memories of Oceanink Series (Season 3) - Part 6

9. Division 6 HaremCamaraderie

It was unsure how it started. The face-pinching of MT’s GameRaider? The fact that Div6 had several matches in a day that liven up the chat? My dating sim jest with Paddy, Pilot and GameRaider?

One thing’s for sure, Div6 became much more chatty after that day. So much that it was commented among streamers and admins. I even experimented on how much they’d paid attention to us by starting a discussion on streaming, and it led to Shidow (Div4 player & streamer), goi (Div1 player & streamer) and CalamarCat (Admin, Div2 player & streamer) joining us by sharing their experience and Streaming 101, further leading to an impromptu meme private battle with CalamarCat commentating.

Looking back, Div6 had always had the potential to be chatty, it just needed a catalyst.

Paddy of Kaiyo had already seemed eager to always start a conversation, greeting captains politely and sending love to everyone. His friendly nature may be how he formed good connection with various teams. Always eager to learn, he may have played a role in Kaiyo’s sudden growth spurt.

On the note of Kaiyo, I learned that Kaiyo and Div5′s Hikari used to be part of Odyssea, a team that appears in both season 1 and 2. Odyssea had also fought KnB in season 1 before, so it was a no wonder that their co-captain, PipDragon, seemed very familiar. Pippy would later share me an old battle video of Odyssea vs KnB she’d found on GDrive, a memory to reminisce~  

GameRaider of Midnight Turfers is pretty chatty as well, his presence brightened the room at times. His behavior and style is almost akin to Pit of Kid Icarus series. He is also apparently an Australian-born Japanese who is learning his language.

Pilot joined in time and again when he could, his humour is often dry and his participation is fairly straightforward. He often played the straight-faced role.

Inkpact started off with Philip joining in a little shyly, but his teammates seemed to be good sport who joined our conversations at rare times. We would later learn that their team mainly came from Indonesia, which made match-scheduling so much easier after.

Pier Pressure lived up to its name by not giving into the peer pressure of joining conversations, though icy joined in from time to time and remained our only connection to PiP.

BK represented VerniySefaro well, joining in conversations good naturedly along with sotsot, usually keeping conversations going or giving a positive insight.

Their conversations even inspired me to start on a Division 6 harem fic (which they’d surprisingly support and look forward to), something I would attempt to complete after finishing these memoirs.

If there’s one thing I learned from all these socializing and “PR-ing”, it was how I like to maintain good relations with other teams. Regardless of being opponents, I’d still like to get to know them as people and build up goodwill among them. UBW (my RO guild) may be dominating in WoE, but we were respected. Tofu had been loved among peers, thanks to louhai’s merrymaking. And now, t!slots, had built up goodwill from our politeness, patience and also giving other teams a thrilling good fight that inspire both sides.

It was a fairly good position to be.

Nevertheless, the lively camaraderie of Season 3′s Division 6 would be fond memories I’d cherish for days to come.

10. *cha, Twitter, Hydra Skills

*cha is a Div4 team made up of 4 main members Yuzu (team leader, recently learning how to flex), Kuki (Jet Squel user who uses Sting Ray scarily), Momo (awesome and scary flex) and Kou (roller frontliner). Their subs, Genmai and Yukou, used to be known as Maiki and hikk respectively from Malaysia team Team Avengers (IYHO) and LMoU (RSI).

Interacting with *cha team was pleasant and enjoyable, as they often provide handy feedback plus tips and tricks.

Yuzu especially, being our touch point, shared the importance of sub weapons, specials type for different modes and recovering from battles. She and Momo also shared with me a Japanese Hydra YouTuber who flanks like a frontliner.

On the note of Hydra tips, being a captain forced me out of my comfort zone and towards connecting with other players. It helped that I made a twitter account (@cerusplats, for those who are interested) for all my Splatoon 2 needs (though it was mainly to upload my Spla2n videos and clear them from my Switch). This led to an interesting Hydra discussion between Coco and Valty on how to play Hydra more flexibly.

That said, Kapitan from Sailor Veemos once participated as a guest to watch *cha vs t!slots, and he’d imparted an advice that would be ingrained in my mind, one that I still attempt to adhere to: to ensure my distance between teammates would still allow my teammates to be supported. This advice was especially significant, considering that my firepower often played an important role in t!slots (something that I had trouble accepting).

All in all, it was a good period of learning.

Read Part 7 HERE