#yes my favourite part of genshin was the team building

[sweet-potato-42]

purgatory fueled my obsession for people management stuff and i have many thoughts about team compositions

i think it was a fun idea and I hope the admins see how it went this time and learn from the teams. They did a good job and looking back some stuff could be improved but still they succeeded.

Most of my suggestions for improvement are for ways to balance out viewership and reducing the drama sicne that was a big issue in the first purgatory. It was overwhelmingly one team and people dont understand how to deal with a biased POV on both sides.

So imma ramble about stuff to consider when making purgatory teams. I admit this is mostly about red and blue teams since i dont know much about how green worked:

Players minecraft skill: this one is obvious you dont want one team to be compeltely overpowering the rest. This includes pvp, building, resource gathering etc. There has to be a balance in how many can do each thing as well

how much time they play: another obvious one all teams need people who play a lot to have a good chance. Also consider the timezones so that they can actually play together

compatibility between members: there has to be a balance between people who get along well and those who dont. This one was missed in purgatory sicne red had many members who were already close to each other and played together a lot. On the other hand blue had mostly players who didnt interact much and even some who did not get along at all (tubbo and aypierre) or who dont work well together (tina and bbh)

Viewership of the members: this one is not for gameplay but for the experience for both streamers and the community. We clearly saw that red had overwhelmingly more viewers than the rest causing a large bias towards them in the community. Even ccs mentioned this one so it is a big thing to consider

consider the playstyles of the members: the audence of qsmp is primarily here for the rp and story so obviously the team that had the most who did that was easily the most popular. Red team did an amazing job with the rp and building an identity the audience got attached to. The blue team was more competitive and it was amazing for those who are more interested in those elements or who are very invested in the characters. Neither playstyle is better but its good to consider a balance so that we dont again get most people attached to a single group

So overall I would make the teams a lot more balanced in these ways so that not only is the competition fun but also there is less drama in the community

I think if a streamer feels the need to say that the other team was the main charcter of the story then something was wrong there

in the end however id say the priority is making sure the competition feels tense and its not just a single team sweeping the whole game. which is why the constant rule changing was good it kept hte game balanced

[thespianinthebackcorner]

Omg omg ramble posts yes yes yes I've missed these (we used to have them every now and then in the Genshin fandom wiki but I've left since then). Essay length post inkoming

The promo kids for the game are related to the manga kids! The promo kids are about mid-20s or so by now, while the manga characters are still teenagers. This one's a big headcanon so I'm gonna use multiple dot points for my favourite parts of this

Hiro and Ocho are brothers, but Hiro hasn't been in the Splatlands for months cause he's out travelling with Veronika. They may or may not get married and Ocho is making a point out of not talking to Mitsuami because of the sheer awkwardness (Veronika and Mitsuami are also siblings.)

Gloves' team have been friends since they were kids, since Gloves' dad (Cuttlefrsh), Half-rim's parents (Kensaki and Tof-U), Clip's sister (Surume) and Straps' cousin (Kou) were besties. Gloves and Clip especially, since Cuttlefrsh and Surume are so tight.

Speaking of Half-Rim, N-Pacer is his sister, they just don't talk to each other all that much cause they're on different teams. Their teams know, albeit only because of their social butterfly of a dad occasionally coming around to make sure they're okay. Literally everyone except Half-Rim and N-Pacer loves Kensaki, Gloves especially thinks he's funny.

(While it's canon to the manga that Emperor's team met because their parents were friends, I haven't quite sorted their place here out yet. Neither have I for Hachi and the other Octolings from the Metro.)

Wireglasses and Kayoss are half-brothers. Kayoss spent the last like six months in Inkopolis for a fashion design degree and was not exactly impressed with Wire when he got back and received the lowdown on what happened. Still, he does care for his brother- Wire's trademark frames were a gift from when Kayoss first started out in Inkopolis. In return, Wire respects him a lot, taking every chance he gets to learn from him. It was Kayoss who taught Wire how to do up his tentacles in the style he has, even if Kay can't use the style himself.

Barreleye and Yarrwall are brothers and a horrifying power team to go up against. They're exactly the same. Same also goes for Hornmet and Stephanie.

Aight now that ones done, time for Coroika solo headcanons. These are mostly Best 8 and Gloves team because they're the ones I think about. These are somewhat separate to the first headcanon both in timeline and content

Straps and Clip regularly host girls night with members of other teams. At least once each night either one of them will complain about how oblivious Gloves and Half-Rim are to each other.

These usually happen a day or two after Gloves' team has movie night together, which is about as chaotic as you'd imagine.

On more than one occasion during Chill Season, Half-Rim has accidentally gotten frozen to the floor from standing still the entire time. It's become a running joke among the rest of the team and an embarrassment to Half-Rim.

Half-Rim has really good hearing, which he uses to his advantage in battle. It takes a lot less than most people think for Gloves to give him commands from halfway across the battlefield. The downside of his hypersensitive hearing, though, is that Splatfests get a little hard on him, so he generally doesn't participate. Still, it's useful having someone on the team who stays home, since the rest of Team Gloves can come over to his place for some warm food once they're done with the party.

thanks to living in the Splatlands, the ENTIRE Best 8 is extremely sensitive to the cold. The Hierarchy discovered this by making the mistake of travelling to Inkopolis during Frostyfest to see how it stacked up, and all four of them came home sick.

It's a running joke in the Best 8 that Barreleye can and will fall down stairs in any direction possible. So far he's fallen up, down, under the railings of, and even through several different flights of stairs, including that of his apartment building. (This one's based off my sibling, because they actually do this.)

And ofc for the game-related headcanons. Once again separate in timeline to the first set of headcanons.

Since discovering ORCA, Neo 3/Veronika has gone down the human history rabbit hole. She befriended ORCA and has access to most of its records, so she knows more than the average person.

ORCA talks really old-english like since the last time it was faced with cephalopod language was the very beginning of their species. It's still updating its translation book with the help of the Squid Sisters and Neo.

ORCA is also sentient like Tartar is, but took a more mellow route due to being lonely. It's fond of the NSS, though, especially Neo, and has been passing on human records to them.

The professor that owned Judd and Lil' Judd and created Tartar is also the same guy who created ORCA, and ORCA is not shy about referring to the guy as its father. (That started after the guy called ORCA his son, and although ORCA gained sentience after humanity died it still remembers those exchanges and takes it to heart.)

Promo kids time! Anemone and Calamar are twins who moved over from Inkopolis. Anemone is enby and Cal is trans male. Tof-U is actually their older sister by a couple years and helped them figure out their identities a lot. The two of them are familiar with pretty much the entire S2 group, especially Kensaki (Tof-U's bf) and Splashley (somewhat of an expert in gender confusion).

Hiro is actually from Octo Canyon, but he was taken with his older sibling when they escaped and doesn't remember a thing. They got separated and he ended up in the Splatlands on his own, eventually meeting some of the current promo group. Rn he's living with Kayoss, since his family took Hiro in.

I have a theory bubbling that works within this that Marina is actually Hiro's older sibling, but neither remember each other due to (a.) memory loss due to trauma and (b.) their lives getting so busy they didn't really think about the past. Acht remembers little Hiro, though, if only by association, and it's them asking Marina about him that they find each other again. (Yes, I am planning a fic with this concept.)

Veronika doesn't do Salmon Run anymore since adopting Little Buddy, and especially not after the Mr. Grizz incident of Alterna.

Kayoss is a very permanence-focused person- he doesn't like drastic changes. The entire group is aware of this, and because of that the rest of them are not-so-secretly planning him and Yarrwall's marriage that they know Kayoss is also hoping for. Still, he's not controlling, and he doesn't mind change. Just gotta talk it over first.

Stephanie has a ton of knowledge on random niche subjects, including but not limited to flower meanings, how to build a PC, shorthand writing, and Salmonid music. No one knows where she gets her information, she just ends up with it.

due to moving to the Splatlands on a relatively tight budget, Cal and Anemone have the most decked-out resumes due to switching between several jobs to get by. The rest of the group does their best to support them, but they don't always let the others help out of sheer stubbornness.

If you're in the hospital, talk to Cal. He's been in there enough times to know a bunch of little tips to make it a bit more comfortable.

They're all in a band! Hiro on drums, Veronika on electric guitar and/or bass, Anemone with keyboard, and Cal with a recently-acquired DJ board thanks to Stephanie. The rest of them do vocals. Thanks to Veronika's familiarity with both the Squid Sisters and Deep Cut, they've managed to cover several iconic songs from both, and gained some popularity. They've also made a couple originals.

It's a running joke that despite how much he cares about his appearance, Kayoss has a horrible fashion sense. Stephanie has attempted to fix this, but to no avail.

Yeah, Steph is semicanonically rich in case y'all didn't know. Her Splashtag says "big-money man o' wardrobe regular", so...

Back to headcanons. Stephanie gives literally everyone nicknames- 'ro, Ika, 'nemone, Cal, Kay, Wally, and Tako for each one respectively, although a good chunk of these are used collectively now. On the flipside, only Hiro, Anemone snd Steph are allowed to call Veronika "Ika". Same goes for calling Hiro 'ro and Anemone 'nemone. It's only because Steph made the names and the other three are in a polycule that they're allowed to do that...

Hiro mods his weapons. He's also not afraid to smack someone with his .96, which I came up with based on the amount of art he has where he's aiming with his shoulder and not his gun...

Cal and Steph are both ace, but Cal has the double deal of aro while Steph doesn't.

Tako relentlessly ships the others and is in fact the reason Yarrwall and Kayoss got anywhere at all.

the original group was Kayoss, Veronika, Tako and Steph. Then Hiro showed up out of seemingly nowhere, Yarrwall moved in from a country town way out in the desert, and finally Anemone and Cal made their way to the Splatlands. Each addition to the group was at least a year apart.

Oh boy this feels like too many headcanons but I have so many for these guys. It's not okay clearly, that's just the S3 group. S2 and 1 timeeee (help)

Kou has audiovisual synesthesia- they see sound. They're a pretty good musician because of this, the notes go weird colours when they're done wrong.

Yari wears really bright colours all the time because he doesn't like being forgotten. And because he really likes bright colours and generally being a visual nuisance.

i don't think I need to reiterate that Tof-U and Kensaki are dating, but they are.

I still have the theory/headcanon that Kensaki, the Squid Sisters and Toni Kensa are all cousins to the same clan. Occasionally, Kensaki gets calls from both sides either asking for favours or just checking in on their so-called baby cousin. They're eagerly awaiting the day Kensaki's tentacles go greyscaled like Callie and Marie's (and assumedly Toni's) are. They've taken bets on whether they'll go black or grey. (It's gonna be grey, but they don't know that yet.)

Getting out of my Kensaki thoughts, Splashley is gender fluid and goes either by Splashley or Splash depending on how they feel.

Surume and Cuttlefrsh are the kind of besties that you should be terrified of. Do anything to one of them and you'll get the other in full force. If Surume ever picks up those Hypnoshades it'll be Cuttlefrsh performing Tide Goes Out on that stage truck. (And yes, he's actually quite good at it. They're well known at the Shoal for their karaoke performances of Squid Sisters songs.)

After they reached the surface, Patricia and Steven were taken in by Surume and Cuttlefrsh- Captain Cuttlefish asked 4 if she had spare room for them, and she in turn asked Cuttlefrsh if he could put up Steven while she took Patricia. They're part of the gang now.

Surume is actually the model on the front of Haikarawalker. That's her.

S1 headcanons! (My skin is starting to fall apart /j)

Kaori and John are siblings and still live in the same apartment they did in S1.

Mizuho is way too good at gymnastics, an example being that one render where she backflipped off a wall in Urchin Underpass and nearly shot Rui.

Speaking of Mizuho and Rui, he is regularly distracted by her. Crush of the century right there.

Laura and Kaori are. A thing. As are Pit and John.

Yuriko is regularly underestimated for using a rapid blaster, but lord she's good with it.

CALLING ALL FUNKY MOLLUSKS!!

Dump your head canons here. Whether it be related to splatoon, coroika, or even your splatsonas or ocs, dump ‘em. No matter how “boring”, random, absurd or disturbing, DUMP THEM RIGHT NOW. RAMBLE. This is your chance to share that one headcanon you have that no one would care about. Here’s one of mine, for encouragement.

If Aloha (coroika) had a little buddy, it’s hairstyle would be this one

because it reminds him of pineapple, which fits his team’s gimmick

OK GO!!