#i get splatted by them all the time while i play dapple dualies nouveau its quite annoying/hj

[sawdusst]

Barreleye vs Gloves >:D

Ok ok ok so

once again, this is probably going to be nonsense but I'm gonna attempt to cook something anyways

This battle would be so much fun for both of them fr, I feel like they'd have a great time even if one of them lost. Also this is just my opinion so ye

ANYWAYS

I'm gonna assume Gloves' team will have the splat3 weapon kits. Gloves and Clip-On's would probably have a speed/mobility advantage over the blasters with their dualies. (Clip Ons changed her weapon to the squelchers later on, so I'll just be using those).

That being said, Gloves' team subs are mostly for inking turf. I think all of them have the splat bomb? Wait no, Gloves would have the suction bomb and Straps would have curling bombs. The blasters also have a slower rate of fire than the dualies and splatterscope. Half Rim could be in the backlines landing a few shots on the blasters while the rest of the team inks more turf.

I mean Barrel's team could out range the splat roller if Straps is hit with a direct shot. They'd also have to get closer to the splatterscope or force Half Rim to move via autobomb/tenta missiles/etc. (Do they even have tenta missiles? idk). Which y'know, I think they could figure that out.

Barreleye's team seems to do a pretty decent job at keeping a safe distance from their opponents using their sub weapons before attacking them. (I'm re-reading their chapter as I write this since I kinda forgor). The toxic mist can really slow the roller down and autobomb forces the splatterscope to move out of position. The suction bomb and ink mines are also going to come in handy as well :]

I don't think Gloves would be able to land any hits if the blasters are constantly shooting at him + the sub weapons. He'd have a hard time trying to keep up with Barreleye's defenses. His team would stay alive for a little bit until they all get wiped out by a blaster sweep towards the end.

I think this would be one of those battles where they're doing alright at the start, but then there's a last second switcheroo. It's a pretty funky match up though, I feel like one of them has close ranged attacks while the other is medium ranged attacks.

So hmmmmmmmmm

I think I'll have to hand this one to Barreleye :D not because of any personal bias Sorry Gloves :"

[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