Splatoon has been played pretty competitively between friends and players online since launch, well now it’s going to be officially played competitively as a Splatoon Esports tournament has been announced in Japan with over $1m worth of prize money! Time to get your ink skills up to their best.
The tournament will also be for Puzzle and Dragons, and will have over $ 1 million in prize money. Eight cities will hold 40 events, in Fukuoka, Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, Miyagi, Hiroshima, Kagawa, and Tokyo. It all culminates in the grand finals to be held on January 30 and 31 in 2016.
The tournament series is being hosted by Kadokawa and Toukaigi / Nicovideo parent company Dwango, and starts September 13 in Fukuoka. No word for now if Nintendo of America or Nintendo of Europe is planning to double down in a similar way, but fansite Squidboards just wrapped up their first tournament and are launching their second one soon, simply named Messfest.
To put this in perspective, Nintendo’s Splatoon tournament is similar in scope and scale to the Capcom Cup for Street Fighter. Nintendo seems unsure how they are to approach eSports for their games yet, but if the recent NWCs are any indication, they are more than aware of fan demand. Perhaps the Toukaigi tournament serves as a beta test for an American Splatoon tournament, which will definitely be bigger in scope.
Tokaigi (the Nico venue) just announced a huge tournament series for Splatoon and Puzzle&Dragons. Over $1 million in prize money,>40 events.
— Ryan Harvey (@fubarduck) August 19, 2015
本日行われた「闘会議新プロジェクト発表会」にて「スプラトゥーン甲子園」の詳細が発表された。9月13日から全国8都市で行われる地区大会を経て「闘会議2016」で決勝戦が行われるとのことだ。
全国の腕自慢は4人1組のチームで参加されたし！http://t.co/9MJJGYGxpp— Splatoon（スプラトゥーン） (@SplatoonJP) August 19, 2015
Source: http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/29914/article/splatoon-esports-tournament-series-launched-in-japan-as-us-receives-transformers-splatfest/
– Murr
