Can Splatoon be an eSport?

This is something that has been tossed around since the game was announced. Can the game truly be an eSport and will it actually keep it's following? Upon the game's original announcement and trailers, people were getting excited as Nintendo doesn't really have any games outside of Smash that has been taken seriously in a competitive scene. As the info came in, people were getting more and more hyped as sites like GameFAQs and NeoGAF were exploding in the forums about how people think the game will go far. After the Global Testfire was announced, sites like SquidBoards began to appear. SquidBoards is the Splatoon equal to the Smash competitive site called SmashBoards. After the first Testfire, there were a lot of posts EVERYWHERE about the maps, weapons and even people talking about what the gear in the Testfire meant. After the first Testfire people were talking about specific routes and ideas for weapons and maps and some people were even looking into exploiting game mechanics to discover tech. One of the earliest examples of Splatoon ~tech~ was called Splat Dashing which is actually still used to this day but isn't considered tech like it was back in the Testifre. Splat Dashing was simply, staring down and firing a single shot and jumping between small blobs of ink to avoid enemies. And like I said, this is still used today with most weapons that have low range like the Sploosh-o-Matic, you'll find people stacking Swim Speed and doing this exact method of moving to approach rather than running away.

Between all the talk about tech and such, the question was brought up again. Can Splatoon be an eSport? At the time we had no idea how the other weapons would play out. People were under the assumption that rollers would be overpowered and chargers were the worst choice you could make. My how things have changed. So while people asked if the game will become competitive, there were people who stated that Nintendo would need to nerf rollers for games to stop being all rollers and maybe then, it would have a chance. After the 2nd Testfire, most views hadn't changed. People on forums and sites like Facebook and Twitter were still claiming that rollers were OP and that if the game did get competitive, matches would just be 4 rollers v 4 rollers and would have no diversity in weapon choice. Third Testfire came and went, nothing was really different and most people stuck to their guns about their opinions. As more and more info came in about weapons, maps and modes people were once again talking about Splatoon's competitive scene and if it would even exist.

Upon the game's release people noticed how a lot changed. People left stick controls behind in favor of the game's motion controls and people began to mess around with the stuff they originally used in the Testfire and many opinions changed. Chargers were no longer classified as worthless and rollers were no longer considered OP. The game had a lot of diversity at the start. But once the game came out, that's when the criticism came in. People began to assume that Nintendo made Splatoon to convert Call of Duty fans and to appeal to shooter fans when their intent was to just make an easily accessible shooter. Because of these assumptions, many people began to write Splatoon off as a "Call of Duty clone" and surprisingly, a lot of people dropped the game and ignored the game. Still today, people compare Splatoon to CoD.

So at launch the game only had Turf War and the topic was brought up again. Can it be an eSport? People argued that the game would need another mode for it to be taken seriously as Turf War isn't competitive at all. A mode where the focus was on shooting the ground rather than the enemy was not deemed competitive enough and it's understandable. Then ranked became unlocked and Splat Zones was made available to play and people's minds changed. Splatoon's ranked modes are even classified as competitive by the game itself and even by Nintendo and this is where it began. People began to talk about strats and such for Splat Zones and began to make videos showing off these strats. Sadly there couldn't be any tournaments as the game at this point lacked any way of hosting a lobby. You just joined a mode and got put in with whoever. Over time more modes were introduced like Tower Control and Rainmaker and Private Lobbies were added so tournaments were made possible and Squad Battles were also added some teams could form and practice their routes and strats on maps and modes.

The first tournament for Splatoon was named Ink or Sink and this tournament tried to incorporate all the modes, even Turf War. Mind you, at this time Rainmaker did not exist and the existence of Rainmaker sparked a lot of debate that is even going on today. This tournament was met with a fair amount of criticism for including Turf Wars and was also met with a fair amount of praise for being the first tournament to try and start competitive Splatoon. Now, there are tournaments usually bi-weekly. Tournaments like Booyah Battle and Messtival and not too long ago, the biggest Splatoon tournament was hosted, Inkstorm. Inkstorm had teams from all regions playing in it and many Japanese teams praised Inkstorm for allowing everyone in. Inkstorm was very much hyped up by players of all regions and rightfully so. Inkstorm ended with the Japanese team Memories (We've Come to make Memories) winning against the team known as Bittersweet Gaming.

There are sponsored Splatoon teams out there. When it comes to competitive gaming, players are often sponsored by companies or organizations to play under their name and brand in return for some benefits. Not long after the squad update came out, there were sponsors out there that had previously sponsored Smash, Tekken, and Street Fighter players were on the lookout for Splatoon teams to add to their roster. And so a few teams were given a sponsorship. Squids Next Door aka SND was sponsored by Panda Global Gaming, Squid Squad Spades were sponsored by Bittersweet Gaming and more recently, Overlook was sponsored by Nintendome. These are the more common sponsored teams you'll see. There are one or two more out there but their names aren't brought up as often. So when people now ask about Splatoon being an eSport, people respond with "well, there are sponsored teams already so we're on our way".

There have been many patches to the game, many weapons added and even more maps were added. Nintendo has been on ball about balancing the game so far as with every Splatoon update, a detailed changelog is made available which is something not even Smash gets. And these notes don't just say stuff like "Weapon X is stronger now" no, Nintendo has gone into great detail about everything. They include damage values, defense values and even the amount of turf needed to charge specials. Nintendo goes in depth with the Splatoon patch notes and it's great because it seems even Nintendo wants people to take this game somewhere. Nintendo seems to be all for Splatoon being an eSport as there have even been Nintendo ran competitive tournaments in Japan.

So really, can Splatoon be an eSport? I believe so and we're pretty much already there. Recent games have sought after "official" acceptance as an eSport. Games like Rocket League which was announced to be an official eSport game but I don't feel a game needs to be told it's an eSport to be one. Hell, even MLG's website has an unused team bracket for Splatoon. It's currently used by a grand total of no one. There are tournaments monthly and most offer cash prizes, teams are being formed with many putting in hours and hours of practice to prepare for tournaments. What's holding Splatoon back from being seen as an eSport by people outside of the community is the game's lack of a decent LAN mode and spectator mode. 90% of Splatoon tournaments are hosted online and use private lobbies to host them but by doing that, we're on Nintendo's schedule. The grand finals of Inkstorm was delayed due to server maintenance that caused DCs all around. A good LAN mode to the game allowing Wii Us to connect to one another locally would help the community with local tournaments as even locally run tournaments require the use of the online servers.

Splatoon is an eSport. There are sponsors involved, prize money offered in tournaments and plenty of hours of dedication gone in to improving gameplay. People only debate this topic today due to the lack of any "official" statement claiming it's an eSport. People shouldn't wait for anyone to tell them it's an eSport because in the end, it's the community and the people around the community that decide if the game can be competitive and be taken seriously and judging by all the players in all regions, the sponsors, the tournaments and even Nintendo, Splatoon is already an eSport.

Will the game stay competitive? Maybe. Sadly Splatoon came out at what seems to be the end of the Wii U's life cycle and unless Nintendo carries Splatoon over to the NX or makes a sequel, it will most likely die upon the next generation of Nintendo consoles. But even before that, Splatoon may lose a good amount of competitive teams. After the release of squad matches, there was a huge bandwagon for Splatoon. A bandwagon that was only there to be a part of the game's competitive scene when it took off. And now with Blizzard's Overwatch coming out, the bandwagoners will drop Splatoon and move on to the next game. Now it's unknown how many players were on said bandwagon and how many may stay but I think it's safe to assume there will be a decrease in the number of Splatoon teams after Overwatch comes out.

So to end this all off, I believe Splatoon is already an eSport. An eSport named by community and doesn't need any outside voice to call it such. The competitive scene is here and hopefully will not die out soon. The game may not be taken seriously by people who play games like Call of Duty competitively but it's not acceptance by other communities we are looking for. Splatoon screams eSport with all the game has to offer and it's only a matter of time till people outside of the community notice this.