3rd Zones Cup+
Disclaimer that I wasn’t able to fully listen to a lot of the streams since I was trying to focus on builds for Main Power Up. I was watching 2 streams at once.
Top 8 Summary — Stages are random!
Surprised that Jounouchi-kun went Tentatek on Blackbelly, since he’s actually a Luna main. He played for Lumonde at Platinum Cup 3. Neat to see that Blackbelly is a stage Keitoon will switch off of H-3 Nozzlenose D as well.
SZ Shellendorf as the last map in a set was not well received, but we do get to see ninniku trying out Firefin Splatterscope. He’s mentioned in the past how he dislikes wide open maps for blasters and I guess their team’s overall preferred weapons had a lot of overlap.
One of the teams Ukemi Saikyou faced in groups was praising Terumi’s Inkbrush play. Quite refreshing to hear.
It’s great to see how flexible both Udonman and Leaf are. Puremia’s also been very good at switching between Custom Blaster and Rapid Blaster Deco lately.
Giwa’s one of the Enperries that appears in some of the Top 10 monthly X-Power ranking. Also nice to see some Squeezers still.
Apologies to Fuujin Raijin Ghost as I was unable to figure out who was who except for their charger. Last Ditch Effort is something you don’t often see, but the Dynamo tried to make it work. Their charger heavily prefers the Firefin chargers. Kensa Splattershot Jr’s Torpedo into Bubbles combo is always terrifying.
Looking at this and previous tournaments, the missing quarterfinals set is likely:
Oretachi Free Sozai
Kirin: H-3 Nozzlenose D
Mentality Shinohara: Slosher Deco, Neo Splash-o-matic
Norishio: Carbon Roller, Carbon Roller Deco
YuMild.: Splatterscope, Heavy Splatling
VS
Shin Jidai
Rate: Splat Brella
Riru: H-3 Nozzlenose D
Sono: Splat Brella, Sorella Brella, Custom Dualie Squelchers
Shiro: Splatterscope
Top 4 Summary — Loser counterpicks!
Terumi somehow makes everything work, serving as a great distraction to let his team clean up. YuMild has been picking up Heavy Splatling lately. The first time I really saw him use it was at the recent Platinum Cup 5.
Oretachi Free Sozai seemed to pick stages that they felt strong on and they certainly dominated the MakoMart game. Maybe Norishio feels comfortable with regular Carbon Roller on some maps with Main Power Up now.
Ukemi Saikyou picking Kelp Dome seemed to be because Keitoon said, “Hey, I can use Ballpoint here, so let’s try it”, which proved to be successful.
Feels bad when the 13 year olds have to take each other out of bracket.
This set was finished after the other semifinals, so Ukemi Saikyou were terrified at having to face Yamamicchi. Keitoon mentioned his hands were shaking several times.
Magi Ace picking Nautilus 47 was cool to see. Very close game as well.
Seemed to be having some difficulties vs the Kensa Jr., so swapping to a map like New Albacore that favours long range was an interesting choice. Yamamicchi really enjoys Dark Tetras on New Albacore. Good at closing the distance and hiding behind cover with the extra rolls. Leaf’s Ballpoint Nouveau picks have been very good too, the kit seems a lot easier to work with across more maps.
Interesting to note that Yamamicchi said he’ll switch to Kensa for Baller on Inkblot. Puremia on Custom Blaster was probably all the Inkjet they needed for that particular stage. They were the first semifinals set to finish and seemed quite intrigued that Terumi, the Inkbrush main, could be facing them in the finals.
All very close and exciting games. Someone on Leafpi to Udon wa Premium said they should be wary of how Ukemi Saikyou’s team comp was good at painting, which is what they lost to in the end. Udonman is also using Tenacity on a charger, which doesn’t seem too unusual considering you’re not painting as much on the roof. Leaf has also used this in some past scrims.
They picked New Albacore to try and shut down the Inkbrush.
Wahoo World seems to be a favourite pick for Ukemi Saikyou, though they did manage to lose here. Port Mackerel was certainly not the map I’d imagine Ukemi Saikyou picking especially since they were afraid of Yamamicchi.Very surprising to have only one Curling Bomb user there as well.
Leafpi to Udonman wa Premium seemed to be focusing a lot on the Inkbrush, but after seeing the results screen of the Port Mackerel game, they realized that the Kensa Sloshing Machine was also a large threat. It took them several minutes to figure out what stage to counter to. They were debating between Kelp, Manta, and Triggerfish.
Keitoon’s hands have been shaking so much that he wants to drink cola to calm down. He also accidentally picks the wrong map, causing Leaf or Udonman to jokeabout how they should have been given a game off that.
Terumi screams that this is the worst stage for Inkbrush. Despite that, it was a very close game. Ukemi Saikyou were just 4 or 5 points away from taking the lead in OT.
Lots of praise on both sides, especially to Shimepii and Terumi who aren’t as known in the top competitive scene. Everyone wonders how Terumi is able to survive as long as he does, making him quite the pro at his weapon.
Nothing too crazy here. Oretachi Free Sozai just seem to favour Inkblot as their counterpick.
Main Weapon Usage
To give a better sense of how often weapons were used, only one player (Terumi) used Inkbrush Nouveau.
H-3 Nozzlenose D and Splatterscope continue to be widely used, though Kensa Sloshing Machine wasn’t too far behind. Splat/Sorella and Tenta Brella may look like they’ve already dropped, but there were some interesting results before Top 8. Don’t forget that all stages are random before Top 4.
The Tenta mains, tyori and Kakimochi, were unfortunately knocked out of groups. tyori’s team lost 1–2 to Fuujin Raijin Ghost. Kakimochi’s team had an intense group that had to be decided via games rather than sets. It was also the same group as the eventual runners-up of the tournament. Sono and Rate, the duo Splat Brella players, were part of the missing quarterfinals set. KimiPre were in the same group as the eventual winners of the tournament, losing another Splat Brella main in Tarbou.
Special Weapon Usage
Ink Armour and Sting Ray continue to stay at the top. A lot of the Splashdowns come from Kensa Sloshing Machine’s increased usage. Shellendorf has 5 of the 8 Suction Bomb Launchers: 4 from Firefin chargers and 1 from Neo Splash-o-matic.
Not as many Bubble Blowers either. A lot of the Tenta Brellas didn’t make Top 8, Explosher was only used once, Leaf will only use Heavy Splatling Deco on certain maps, and Magi Ace mostly went Custom Hydra Splatling.
Main Ability Usage
Main Power Up will be highlighted in green for a while since it’s a new ability.
Trying out something new to better see if there are some general trends.
Stealth Jump is considered very good on large maps, so Blackbelly’s higher numbers is a bit surprising.
Object Shredder is popular not only for Bubbles, but for when you expect the enemy to have specials like Ballers and Ink Armours. While the most seen special on MakoMart was Ink Armour, Inkblot saw an almost equal amount yet had less than half the amount of Object Shredder users.
Comeback + Quick Respawn + Stealth Jump is actually tied for the 10th most used combination, with basically every other combination being a player specific choice. Yamamicchi is the only who’s used Comeback + Main Power Up + Main Power Up on both Enperry and Kensa Splat Dualies. Since it’s new, I’m expecting another week or so until people figure out what builds they’re going to aim for once they’ve grinded their chunks.
Special Charge Up and Ink Saver Sub have been very popular since the rise in chargers and H-3 Nozzlenose D. I’m just able to better showcase it now.
Many of the Splat Dualies in this tournament have gone either 1m3s,1m4s, or 2m of Main Power Up. Yamamicchi was willing to sacrifice having no Stealth Jump in this tournament to have those 2 mains. Mentality Shinohara is the only Slosher Deco I’ve seen using Main Power Up, but he’s also one of the few mains at this level of play. A lot of the Ballpoints also had 2 or 3 subs of it. Norishio only used it on regular Carbon, which makes some sense since Carbon Deco can just follow up with Burst Bombs.
Feel free to look at all the data and more via the links below!
