Flippa Floppa wins 20XX, the first Major of 2023

Dapple Production hosted the first Splatoon 3 major of 2023 on the 11th and 12th February. 20XX was a two day event with a Groups into Double Elimination format.

The three teams that came out on top were:

• 1st: Flippafloppa
• 2nd: Starburst
• 3rd: Kagura

Over 100 teams joined the tournament to play for the final prizepool of $1820.63 which was gathered with the help of the community after the starting pool of 1400$. Thank you so much to everyone that contributed!

The tournament began Saturday with the Group stage. The 109 checked-in teams played across 19 groups to show their strength. Places 1 - 2 advanced to Alpha Bracket, places 3 - 4 to Beta Bracket, and places 5 - 6 to Gamma Bracket.

Most exceptional in that regard was Group L where ASC Tenshi, Seaform, and pickup team The Wiggles had to playout a tiebreaker. That was heated enough, but it didn't stop there, as the result of that was another tie! In the end the group placings were determined by the points the teams accumulated in their tiebreaker matches.

Day 2 was way more intense than anyone could have imagined, as the UK-team Chew-its Mafia upset the first seeds Finallly against all odds 2-1, dropping them down into the losers bracket of Double Elimination. The pickup team BOBS backed this score up with another 2-1 clutch against Finally, kicking the Japanese top team out of the tournament. Starburst fought through the winners bracket with an impressive display of consistency, and were the first team to qualify for Grand Finals. Flippa Floppas soon joined them after going through the losers bracket, recovering from Starburst knocking them down earlier in the tournament. They sought revenge and ultimately managed to turn the tide, winning their initial Grand Finals re-run, and than winning again in the reset to secure the tournament win!

The domination of triple Splash-O-Matic had left the community feeling somewhat fatigued, so it was refreshing to see less teams picking that comp throughout 20XX. We saw noticeably more weapon variety, such as both Splatana variants. That being said, the majority of the community are understandably eagerly awaiting a patch that will change up the current meta