NA League 2026 Event #2 (Preseason Week 2)

Preseason Week 2 means one more chance for unsung talent to get their big break on Nintendo’s livestream

On Saturday, April 11, the Splatoon 3 North American League 2026’s second and final Preseason event ran amid several other major Splatoon events, including LANs, a Global Gauntlet qualifier, and Springfest.

Zach led the commentator cast, joined by Kbot and Falco. Operating the spectator camera was CzarDB.

The teams who made it to the Top Cut during the Preseason Week 2 event were:

Xiphias
Acute team
Not For Radio
C4K
Honeybadgers
Wave Riders
InkThys
SmoothMoves

The top two teams, Xiphias and Acute team, were no newcomers to the NA League. Xiphias appeared in a Top Cut stream last year, and the team was partly built with players from DPS Only, a two-time NA League 2025 Top Cut stream participant. Acute team, meanwhile, included two players from Broke Birds, last week’s third place team.

This week’s action did see use of the Splattercolor Screen, and its audio and visual effects appeared on stream in several matches. Take caution watching replays if you are sensitive to them.

Winner’s Quarterfinals: C4K vs. Honeybadgers (3–0)

To start the Top Cut stream, Winner’s Quarterfinals began with C4K vs. Honeybadgers, two teams new to the NA League Top Cut.

Game one was at Hagglefish Market for Rainmaker. Neither team had a Charger, opting for choices like Heavy Edit Splatling and Dynamo Roller. C4K cleared their checkpoint first, but received a delayed wipe, enabling Honeybadgers to quickly follow up with their own checkpoint. In the final seconds, C4K took Honeybadgers down three players, and the final score was 73–58, in C4K’s favor.

Game two, Tower Control at MakoMart, was perhaps the fastest game of Tower Control the NA League may ever see, lasting only 52 seconds. At 4:48, C4K got on the tower, and rode it without slowing down straight to the knockout, at 4:08!

Splat Zones at Manta Maria was the final game in the set, and it was rough for Honeybadgers. They were frequently down three players, even being caught in a delayed wipeout more than once. C4K had another 100 to 0 knockout, and took the set shutout 3–0 to advance to Winner’s Semifinals.

Winner’s Semifinals: Acute team vs. Not For Radio (3–0)

With C4K advancing to Winner’s Semifinals to face Xiphias, on the other side of the Winner’s Bracket, Acute team was about to face Not For Radio. SmoothMoves, Honeybadgers, InkThys, and Wave Riders were all sent to the Loser’s Bracket.

The first game went to Hagglefish Market for Splat Zones. In the tense game, Acute team was able to wipe out Not For Radio twice, but lagged behind in points for most of the match. In the last 15 seconds, Not For Radio tried to retake the zone with a Reefslider, which Acute team’s Ultra Stamp shut down, allowing them to get the lead. Acute team held their lead through overtime, winning 87–77.

Weatherman’s Ultra Stamp flying in to meet KAGOME’s Reefslider and shut it down before it gets to the Splat Zone.

Up next was Tower Control at Shipshape Cargo Co., a very different story than the previous game. After 30 seconds, Acute team passed the first checkpoint, and not slowing down, they got to 15 before both teams went down three players. Another minute passed, and Acute team inched closer to victory, to 4. They wiped out Not For Radio three times in a minute and a half, and knocked out with over a minute left.

Rainmaker at Robo ROM-en was another strong showing from Acute team, getting all the way to 8 before 60 seconds passed. Acute team kept constant pressure on Not For Radio, either keeping them down two, three, four players, or bringing the Rainmaker into their spawn. Not For Radio had the Rainmaker in overtime, but was taken out by an Ultra Stamp toss, giving Acute team the set shutout after the 92–38 game.

Winner’s Finals: Xiphias vs. Acute team (3–0)

Xiphias and Acute team met in Winner’s Finals already having a storyline develop throughout the day. Xiphias hadn’t lost a single game yet, including during the Ladder round of the NA League. Acute team, meanwhile, had almost the same perfect streak—their only loss was to Xiphias, in the Ladder round.

Team Xiphias, from left to right: vheavy, jose, Jay, and Droid.

Splat Zones at Hagglefish Market for game one again! In the first 20 seconds, Xiphias wiped out Acute team, and from there, their points started burning. Acute team blocked Xiphias’s 100 to 0 knockout by stopping them at 4. Ultimately, they could only delay the knockout, and Xiphias won the game 30 seconds early.

The stream saw its second Tower Control at MakoMart game, and while not as fast as the first one, still ended rather early. Acute team went down three players in the first 15 seconds, leading to Xiphias making a huge push to 45 in one go. They kept driving forward, taking Acute team down in pairs, until they knocked out again, at 2:48.

Rainmaker at Museum d’Alfonsino was next, and Acute team has now used one of each type of Splatana: Wiper, Stamper, and Decavitator. Xiphias got the Rainmaker first, but couldn’t get the checkpoint. Acute team took the lead, but still not the check yet. Halfway through, Xiphias finally cleared the checkpoint, and carried it to 35, their furthest score. Xiphias won the game 65–40, and advanced to Grand Finals undefeated!

Loser’s Semifinals: Honeybadgers vs. C4K (1–3)

Well, it’s back to Honeybadgers vs. C4K, just like Winner’s Quarterfinals! Honeybadgers had won their way up from Loser’s Top 8, 3–0’ing SmoothMoves and Not For Radio; meanwhile, C4K was coming off of a 3–0 win over InkThys in Loser’s Quarterfinals.

At Inkblot Art Academy for Rainmaker, C4K nailed an early lead, getting to 31 before Honeybadgers got any points. By the two minute mark, Honeybadgers were wiped out as C4K had one player disconnect, and it was just their S-BLAST ‘91 left alive. C4K defended their lead in the 3v4, not losing it until the last 45 seconds; in the final second, when Honeybadgers were down 3, C4K slipped back into the lead, winning the 3v4 72–71.

Tower Control at Undertow Spillway was another quick knockout from C4K, smoothly sailing past their first and second checkpoint. As they cleared their third, Honeybadgers were wiped out, and seconds later, C4K won the game, at 3:40.

Game three went to Urchin Underpass for Splat Zones, where the Splattercolor Screen was used, and its effects were on stream. C4K brought a double Triple Splashdown comp, and made full use of it to cap the zone whenever possible. Despite this, Honeybadgers took a strong lead early, and only bolstered it throughout the game, going as far as knocking out and taking their first win from C4K.

Clam Blitz was finally up, at Scorch Gorge. From the 3-minute mark, C4K scored three times in one minute, but until the third time, it was only one Power Clam, with their score ending at 51. Honeybadgers missed their first throw, but on the second try, scored, and took the lead, all the way to 27! In overtime, C4K used every special at their disposal to protect jump-ins and wipe out Honeybadgers, to take the lead, 84–73.

Loser’s Finals: Acute team vs. C4K (3–0)

Both Acute team and C4K had been sent to the Loser’s Bracket courtesy of Xiphias, and now they were set to fight over who got the rerun. This was not the first time these teams faced one another that day either, as Acute team won against C4K during the Ladder round as well.

For the third time, game one was Splat Zones at Hagglefish Market. C4K took a big lead at the start, but before the first minute ended, Acute team wiped out C4K. This led to Acute team taking the lead, but barely a minute passed before C4K had it back thanks to a Splattercolor Screen blocking the zone. Again, Acute team wiped out C4K to get the lead one last time before knocking out close to the one minute mark.

Each team’s Turf War comp—Acute team with a REEF-LUX MIL-K, .52 Gal, Snipewriter 5H, and Painbrush; C4K with a .52 Gal, Heavy Edit Splatling, Splash-o-matic, and Glamorz Splattershot.

Turf War made its first appearance on stream at Inkblot Art Academy. The teams didn’t adjust their weapons too much to accommodate the mode. Halfway through, the Danger warning showed up for C4K, and at the one minute point, both teams had only two players up. In the last seconds, C4K, with Danger back in the overhead, went down three players, sealing their loss, 35.5% to 53.1%.

Tower Control at MakoMart, a combo which C4K had been dominant on earlier on stream, began with Acute team wiping out C4K and themselves only being down to their last player, who rode the tower through the first checkpoint while everyone respawned. The game felt like a bloodbath, with players splatted left and right, and by the end of it, Acute team proved to be the stronger team, winning 65–40.

Grand Finals: Xiphias vs. Acute team (3–0)

The runback between Xiphias and Acute team, to conclude their storyline for Saturday’s events, had both teams sticking to weapons they were most comfortable with. Especially in Xiphias’s case, who hardly changed their weapons at all during the entire Top Cut.

Splat Zones at Crableg Capital started with Acute team falling into a delayed wipe little more than 10 seconds in. They were able to cap the zone, stopping Xiphias at 30. It wasn’t long before Xiphias was back in control, and before the clock reached the halfway point, Xiphias had the knockout under their belts.

Game two went to Tower Control at Robo ROM-en. Both teams were quick to be cut in half, and shortly after, Acute team was wiped out, giving Xiphias time to clear their first checkpoint. Xiphias’s Blaster was Acute team’s biggest obstacle, always popping up to take players down in droves. Xiphias beat the clock, wiping out Acute team and driving the tower to a knockout with a handful of seconds to spare.

Rainmaker at Scorch Gorge closed out the set; Acute team brought a .52 Gal and .96 Gal, but the Ink Vac didn’t stop them from struggling most of the game to keep Xiphias out of their base. Xiphias’s Rainmaker carrier dodged past a Kraken Royale and took it all the way to 17, and from there, the rest of the game was Acute team being denied any momentum.

Jay brings the Rainmaker as far as it can go, pincered by a Kraken Royale and two opponents.

Xiphias went on to win the game 86–0, and made it to the top of the podium at the Splatoon 3 North American League 2026 Preseason Week 2 event completely undefeated all day, from the Ladder round through Top Cut!

By the end of the Preseason event, there was still more Splatoon for everyone to enjoy, with Springfest only half over. With big action waiting for next Saturday, between the start of the NA League Regular season—where points begin to count toward Playoffs—and the Splat World Series’ First Edition Global Gauntlet Qualifier 2, April remains a strong month for the best Competitive Splatoon has to offer!

Original Posting Date: April 14, 2026 at Splatoon Stronghold.

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