Final Report Part 1
Introduction
The end of the 2018 year was marked by a period of consistency and growth. While many were unsure of the future of competitive Splatoon, in truth the scene has only continued to grow since the release of the game. In one of the busiest seasons in the game, top teams have come out in full force, their consistent results bearing much fruit. This is the Season 5 Final Report, the start of the second year of Splatoon 2.
Upcoming Changes
Japan
A quick word, things will be a little pared down in this report compared to previous. First, we will not be noting down Japanese rankings for the season as covering the region has become extremely tough. In our efforts to change the way we record and calculate rankings, we have decided for now to forgo the Japanese rankings and instead present each major tournament courtesy of ganbawoomy. You can find a summary of her work here, where she has kept track of each top cut in Japanese events.
Regional Split
Second, as we analyze more and more about the competitive scene, we must strive to adapt and change to suit the needs of the scene. With the rise in attendance numbers, there has been a marked trend in tournament attendance. With this, and with the announcement of the European Community Cups hosted by Nintendo of Europe, we have decided it is high time to split the INT region into European (EU) and North American (NA) regions.
The NA/EU regional split will be based on a few criteria. The obvious first differentiation will be region-exclusive events based on tournament rules or physical location for LAN events. The second factor will be based on attendances for regular/semi-regular events. As listed above, the tournaments showed preference in attendance for one region over the other, either due to latency or timezone issues. This list can change based on changes in tournament turnout, tournaments dying, or even based on preference of organizers. In the case a regular tournament has an even turnouts of regions, then we will determine where they will go on a case-by-case basis.
There will also be a new category of events to help promote the amateur scene. These events will not be counted in the NA/EU regional rankings to help nurture new and upcoming teams.
For higher-profile international events and leagues, these will be placed in a separate category and will also not be used for the regional rankings. Instead, these events will factor in the Global Rankings used in the future. These events will also be weighted when calculating Global Rankings to emphasize their importance in promoting international competition. The weight will be based on size and nature of the tournament themselves.
Player-Based Rankings
A while ago we put out a thought on changing rankings to reflect players more than teams as a single entity.
We would like to continue this discourse to help better reflect the Splatoon scene and better track the results of pickup teams. However, as stated in this, we need the help of the community to make tracking of matches a regular thing, either through massive recordings of VODs or tracking of SplatNet2 results. Doing so will be an expansion of ganbawoomy’s work as seen earlier in the article.
Database Upgrade
Thanks to Lunaji, we have been working on upgrading our database to better record the scene. For the purpose of restructuring our database, past results will thusly be split based on the above criteria to reform the rankings. As said before, our work output will be slower as we work on getting this done.
Along with this will be a incentive to help get a website up and ready for public viewing. We cannot yet say when this will be released, so stay tuned.
Special Thanks
Once again, I’d like to take the time to thank the people behind SplatStats. Without them, none of this would be possible.
First, our new hands! Cue and Lunaji have recently joined our team in the past few months! As mentioned before, Lunaji has been a blessing, helping us to restructure our database as well as improve and update the algorithms used to calculate rankings. Cue will be helping to create graphics and infographics for future SplatStats content. The Final Report graphics are thus accredited to Cue.
And as usual, thanks to ganbawoomy, Toadsili T, and sanchi for continuing to help behind the scenes and becoming the backbone of our team. We thank you for following us for the last year, and we hope to help make this second year of Splatoon 2 better than ever.
