Splatoon 2 German championships: The truth!

Hello and welcome to my „documentation“ about the German championships 2019.

First of all a disclaimer. Everything that stays in this document has happened in reality and hasn't been invented. Also, just because I say someone doesn't mean (s)he have the same opinion as I!

Let's start with a few information.

The German championships had 3 „stages“.

First stage were the qualifiers. We had 8 qualifiers (5 online qualifiers and 3 offline)
Second stage were the Pre-finals. All 8 teams will play there the quarterfianls. It was an offline event in Frankfurt (Nintendo of Europe). The pre-finals were on the 10.August.
The last satge were the Finals. The Finals were hold on the Gamescom with the best 4 German teams. The Finals were on the 24.August

I will talk about every tournament separate lets look on some overall data.

Teams were allowed to play in as many tournaments as they want, which wasn't allowed last year. We have last year 4 online tournaments and every team was allowed to play once.

How many teams played in the German championchips?

If I just count the registration we have 39 teams which played in the 8 qualifiers. That would be 4,875 teams per tournament.
If I don't count dropped teams we have 32 teams. That would be 4 teams per tournament.
If I don't count teams twice we have 25 teams. That would be 3,125 teams per tournament.
Because three from the 25 teams just played once and dropped too would we have 22 different teams which actually played at least 1 game. That would be 2,75 teams per tournament.

Last year:
We had last year just four online qualifiers and no team was allowed to play twice. In the end we had 46 teams last year. That would be 11,5 teams per tournament!

How are this „bad“ numbers possible?

Actually we had last year a lot of casual teams which just played for fun. I heard from a lot of casual players that they don't have motivation to play, because they „were to bad“. But also it was Nintendos fault too! Nintendo had problems in advertising the tournaments (I will talk about that later more).

Here is a list of the teams:

Achromatic
Agaru
BackSquids
Berlin pickup
ERN
Gelbgrün
Imaginery Paradise
Miiverse Invasion
Patatas
Pelagos
Polar Ace
Prunella the Poltergeist
PUNgasius
Rasensprenger
pegasius
Reunited
Si Moon
Shinkai
Squished Squad (drop)
Tentacle Terror (drop)
Top Slug
White Dawn
Wassermoon
WEC
.jpg

But where did this teams play? The eight qualifier tournaments:

eSports Leipzig (Online)
GameOn Berlin (Offline)
N-Zone (Online)
ntower (Online)
Meltdown Cologne (Offline)
Nintendo-Online (Online)
Clutch23 Stuttgart (Offline)
Nintendo Connect (Online)

What will I tell you about these tournaments?
All the dates and which teams played in this tournament.
When they were announced.
Rule set.

But before we will talk about every tournament lets talk about a little story about the tournaments.

It was the 27.June. Nintendo announced the next European championships in Splatoon 2 and Smash Bros. Nintendo also announced that there will be offline tournaments too. A few days passed and Alice + myself question asked us when they would announce it. We know there would be 8 online tournaments and there were only 8 weeks left until the Gamescom. On 1.July Alice got a message. A member from eSports Leipzig messaged her and asked her to help organize a tournament. after a short talk we got some infomation. Nintendo was messaging 8 different „things“ which are close to gaming. For example (online) newspapers (like N-Zone, ntower and Nintendo Connect) or gaming bars (like Meltdown and Clutch23). Esports Leipzig got the offer to host an online/offline tournament for the Splatoon 2 German championships. They could choose everything like tournament format and rules and the stuff. It just need to be done until the 4.August. We also got the information about the pre-finals there in Frankfurt on the 10.August. Alice and I started now to search for the other tournaments, because we had a feeling that Nintendo will mess things up. And we should be right, after a day we found 3 more online tournaments. Esports Leipzig, N-Zone, ntower and Nintendo Connect. We noticed on the same day that there will be just 5 weeks for playing these tournaments and because these week will nothing happen there were only 4 weeks for playing this tournaments. Alice and I tried to organize it that not all tournaments were hold on the same day. We also offered rules for every tournament that we don't have shit rules like last year. Esports Leipzig used our rules, N-Zone and ntower adapted some of them but did very similar rules. Just Nintendo Connect didn't want to „cooperate“. More about the rules later in every tournament. In the next days we couldn't found more tournaments. We didn't found anything until the 7.July. I was searching on smash.gg for Splatoon 2 tournaments and found the tournament from GameOn. Our first offline tournament what we found. Just 3 days later we found the next offline tournament in „Meltdown cologne“. I found it over google on their Facebook site. On the next day Alice messaged me about the next offline tournament. It was the 11.July and in 5 days we found 3 tournaments again. She told me that DestinyCast wrote her about an offline tournament near Stuttgart. It would be hold in Clutch23 a gaming bar. We founded in total 7 tournaments and just one was missing! We had 4 online tournaments and 3 offline tournaments. An entire week passed again, and we were worried about the last tournament. On the 19.July we found the last tournament. It was an online tournament hold from „Nintendo Online“. We had now 8 tournaments and all the planned dates. The first tournament would be hold on the 21.July. On the last day from the final Splatfest. 3 Weeks left for 8 tournaments. Why did we need to search may you ask. Nintendo didn't announce a single tournament even if they promised it. On the 25.July they announced it. Already a tournament were played and for two more tournaments was the registration deadline passed... (also for Smash was one tournament already over). Alice announced the tournaments on the SLG server because Nintendo was to lazy. We couldn't reach a lot of casuals with that. Also, thank you DestinyCast for making a video on which dates there are tournaments and telling us about the offline tournament near Stuttgart.

But now lets talk about the tournaments. I give you now information about every single tournament.

Quick Information. Just that Alice and I knew about the tournaments didn't meant they were announced!!! The tournament organizer got of course time before we helped announcie.

__eSports Leipzig__

It was the first from the eight tournaments. It was official announced on the 9.July and was hold on the 21. July, as already mentiond did Nintendo announce it on the 25.July, 4 days after the tournament was over.

Format: DE
Participants: 6
Seeding: Random
Teams:  Achromatic, ERN, Pelagos, Polar Ace, Rasensprenger, Shinkai
Placements: 1. Polar Ace, 2. Pelagos, 3. Rasensprenger
Rules: Classic normal rules from Alice.
Stream: Yes

__GameOn__

Okay the first offline tournament. It was announced on the 7.July and hold on the 26.July in Berlin. It was the first tournament with a default tournament win...

Format: ??
Participants: 2 (1 dropped)
Seeding: ??
Teams: White Dawn, „berlin pickup“ (don't know the actual team name) (D)
Placements: 1. White Dawn
Rules: ??
Stream: There wasn't something which you could stream

Story behind this:
First of all thank you Mats for telling me the information about this tournament. White Dawn was ready to play but there was just one player from the other team. They all decided to wait more, because there were just two teams on the bracket. They got free ice tea and after talking they also got the information that the location didn't have docking stations for the Switchs. GameOn was asking Nintendo to send them some (Nintendo also offered that for LAN locations). Nintendo never send this docking stations and legends are saying they are still not there, but Nintendo sent prices... for some reason. After two hours White Dawn got the free tournament win (and also the prices).

__N-Zone__
Third tournament, second online tournament. It was announced on the 5.July and hold on the 27.July. It was originally planned on the 26. July, but because of the offline tournament in Berlin the tournament organization took the decision to move it.

Format: DE
Participants: 8 (2 dropped)
Seeding: Random
Teams: Achromatic, Agaru, BackSquids (D) ERN, Pelagos, Rasenprenger, Shinkai, Squished Squid (D)
Placements: 1. Agaru, 2. Rasensprenger, 3. Pelagos
Rules: Similar to Alices rules but not the exact same. Still, pretty good cp rules
Stream: Yes

Fun Fact: It was planned to play Urchin Underpass!!! (They switched the English name for „The Reef“ and „Urchin Underpass“

Finals
SZ - Kofferfisch-Lager - Walleye Warehouse
CB - Camp Schützenfisch - Camp Triggerfish
RM - Molluskelbude - Musselforge Fitness
TC - Korallenviertel - Urchin Underpass
SZ - Buckelwal-Piste - Humpback Pump Track

__ntower__
Forth tournament. Third day in a row with a tournament. It was announced on the 7.July and hold on the 29July. It was one from two tournaments where every team who lost didn't get a single point in this set.

Format: DE
Participants: 8 (3 dropped)
Seeding: Random
Teams: BackSquids, Miiverse Invasion, Pelagos, Rasensprenger (D), ReUnited, Shinkai (D), Team Gelbgrün, Tentacle Terror (D)
Placements: 1. BackSquids, 2.Pelagos, 3. ReUnited
Rules: Classic normal rules from Alice.
Stream: No

__Meltdown Cologne__
Last week, last four tournaments. Meltdown was announced on the 11.July and hold on the 31.July. It was the second offline tournament and the second tournament with a default win.

Format: ?
Participants: 1
Seeding: ?
Teams: .jpg
Placements: 1. .jpg
Rules:It was planned as only TW.
Stream: No

__Nintendo Online__
It was announced on the 25.July. Interesting here you couldn't sign up until 31.July. It was hold on the 2.August. It was also the smallest online tournament. It was the second from two tournaments where every team who lost didn't get a single point in this set.

Format: SE
Participants: 2
Seeding: Random
Teams: Pelagos, WEC
Placements: 1. Pelagos, 2. WEC
Rules:every mode, random map
Stream: No

__Clutch23__
It was announced on the 11.July. It was hold on the 3.August and was the last offline tournament. Also, the only offline tournament withe more than 1 team.

Format: RR| everyone vs. everyone
Participants: 3
Seeding: ////
Teams: Patatas, Prunella the Poltergeist, Rasensprenger
Placements: 1. Rasensprenger, 2. Patatas, 3. Prunella the Poltergeist
Rules: SZ, TC, RM, TC, RM and random maps
Stream: Yes

Fun fact: We had 11 maps and 19dcs. 1 dc was in the overtime, and we replayed every dc.

__Nintendo Connect__
It was announced on the 5.July and was also played on the 3.August. It was the last qualifier in total.

Format: DE
Participants: 9 (1 dropped)
Seeding: Random
Teams: Achromatic, ERN, Imaginary Paradise, PUNgasius, ReUnited, Si Moon, Top Slugs, Placements: 1. Imaginary Paradise, 2. ERN, 3. Top Slug
Rules: Every Bo3 was SZ,TC,RM. Every Bo5 SZ,TC,RM,CB,SZ. Random Maps.
Stream: Yes

Interesting about these tournament: ReUnited got in the second Winner Round a dq because they had a Sub which wasn't on the roster. Imaginary Paradise had Noctis as a sub (who was qualified and not in the roster), but they still could play and won. They could still play in Frankfurt even if Nocits played.


Frankfurt. On the 10.August all 8 Teams needed to play in the Frankfurt Pre Finals. It was SE and you only played a Bo5. The seeding was random. The teams got the maplist 1 day before the tournament started.

Qualified teams:
Polar Ace
White Dawn
Agaru
BackSquids
.jpg
Pelagos
Rasensprenger
Imaginary Paradise

Maplist:
TC on Snapper Canal
SZ on The MakoMart
RM on Kelp Dome
CB on Shellendorf Institute
TC on Inkkblot Art Academy

All teams were there and we got our Switches. We also got all an orange T-Shirt and needed to come in long blue pants or jeans. Intresting here a lot of people didn't come in blue jeans. They came with black jeans or short pants. One girl also came in a short skirt. That was important for the trailer on the Gamescom which we needed to make in Frankfurt (If we would win our match).

The drawing was like that: All 8 captains draw a number between 1 and 8. Team 1 played against Team 2, Team 3 against 4, 5 against 6, 7 against 8. That was the drawing:

Rasensprenger - .jpg
White Dawn - BackSquids
Polar Ace – Imaginary Paradise
Pelagos – Agaru

we had 3 matches which went 3-0 and one match which went 3-2

Rasensprnger 3-0 .jpg
White Dawn 0-3 backSquids
Polar Ace 3-0 Imaginary Paradise
Pelagos 2-3 Agaru

After the teams one they needed to answer Questions like favorite map, favorite weapon, since when they are playing splatoon. They also made the films which you can see before the German champs started on the Gamescom. We got also a document were all the rules are in for the Gamescom as well. There stand that the winner from Match one would play against the winner from Match B. So the Match ups would be like this:

Rasenprenger vs. BackSquids
Polar Ace vs. Agaru

It was also said that the GF are a Bo7. But Nintendo changed the rules after the Frankfurt tournament....

__Gamescom__
On the 19.August got we the Map list, and we knew about the rule change. There will be a drawing before the tournament starts on the Gamescom for the exact matches. It was also just Bo5 in GF. The players were allowed to stay in a container to rest there self, and we got free drinks. We got an introduction what we need to do later on the stage. On stage, we needed to say „Why is our team winning today“ and the drawing begun.

Agaru vs. Rasensprenger
BackSquids vs. Polar Ace

and this was the Maplist:

Semi Finals:
SZ on The MakoMart
TC on Snapper Canal
RM on Kelp Dome
CB on Shellendorf Institute
TC on Inkkblot Art Academy

Grand Finals:
SZ on The Reef
CB on Manta Maria
TC on Wahoo World
RM on Sturgeon Shipyard
SZ on Walleye Warehouse

You maybe ask yourself now „Wait. Did he just copied to fast the maps because Semis and Frankfurt Maps are the exact same.“ The answer is simple. No. We played the exact same maps just in a different order in the Semi Finals. Lets get the results in for the Semis:

Agaru 3-0 Rasenprenger
BackSquids 3-0 Polar Ace

Both matches 3-0 this should be an interesting and exciting finals! 15Mins later was BackSquids with 2-0 in the lead. BackSquids won the first match without any big problems but the second one was very close. Just two points between them! And then TC Wahoo we saw a completely different game. Agaru was better! And with better I mean way better. They hold BackSquids perfectly back and came to good pushed and won this round. I guess BackSquids saw their mistake which they did. They played the last two rounds without armor and with armor again on RM Shipyard it was way easier for them. Creamy got on CB Manta and TC Wahoo 18kills on both maps because of the missing armor for BackSquids. BackSquids won this match and also the set and the championships!

Agaru 1-3 BackSquids
Congrates to BackSquids for getting the titel once again!

Fun Facts about the tournament on the Gamescom:

1.Team Rasensprenger had the idea to bring flags from their team logo. It wasn't allowed to get them on the stage, but we could give them friends in the audience. They just shouldn't very near to stage that it was able to see the stage from behind. On the flag was also an atomic explosion and if possible they shouldn't hold it directly into the camera. The camera men zoomed like 3-5 times on the flag and said they should hold it into the camera (GG to Nintendo).

2. „Nobody knows how you need to say CetaCeta Markt“~ Nintendo organizer

CetaCeta Markt is german for MakoMart.

3. The maps on the Gamescom were the exact same Maps to last year.


That was kinda the German championships. It wasnt good organized and it shouldn't happen like that again. If Alice and I wouldn't have tried to coordinate the tournaments it would be much more bad. Still, it was a nice German champs and for me personally are the Top 8 teams like that perfect (If we just look on this 8 teams).
Here are the rankings from the Top 8:

1. BackSquids
2. Agaru
3. Polar Ace
3. Rasensprnger
5. Imaginary Paradise
5. Pelaos
5. White Dawn
5. .jpg


Last words:
This German championships were chaotic in the organization sadly, too much tbh. They started to organize the tournaments on the 1.July which is too late. We had two tournaments on the same time and one tournament was under the week on a Wednesday. It could be a lot better and some tournaments had some interesting rules. I also never saw 19 dcs on an offline tournament on just 11maps. We had the PC and 9 Switches in the same network (yes we played online not in the offline switches).

Also, Nintendo should look for places which hold at least one Splatoon tournament before.
Clutch23 for example never hold a Splatoon tournament, just Smash and Mario Kart. GameOn didn't even had docking stations and eSpot Leipzig also hold never a tournament.

Offline tournaments are interesting. They sadly don't work in Germany. But I can think that in Countries like Netherlands or Belgium they would work. Germany is just to big for that.

Thank you for reading this. And I hope that the other Euopean champioschips get better championships!


Special thanks to Alice, DestinyCast and Mats for information about the tournament. Also to every player who played in this championships!