NA League 2026 Event #8 (Regular Season Week 6)

An unusually low turnout this week, despite Nintendo banning the cheaters

On Saturday, May 23rd, the Splatoon 3 North American League continued into its 8th event, week 6 of the Regular Season. After this event, only two more remained, before a brief break leading up to the Playoffs in June.

Zach, Mellana, and Sapph hosted the Top 8 livestream. As always, the stream started with a recap of what has happened so far, including the current Season Standings. This week, viewers noticed both in the livestream and on Battlefy that something drastic had occurred since the recap during the NA League Show one day prior:

LEFT: Season Standings from the NA League Show on Friday; RIGHT: Season Standings from Event #8 on Saturday.

No mention of the standings from last week’s event, several teams had more points and a different win/loss ratio than before which altered their placements, and two high-placing teams were absent: FORFEIT and Ayanokoji.

It went without formal announcement that Nintendo had removed the teams. No official word explained why, but players and viewers knew: the teams were banned for breaking the rules of the NA League, and had been doing so for weeks despite appeals made to Nintendo to remove them. The teams are still searchable on Battlefy, but no longer have any points despite their win/loss records.

This week’s Top 8 stream, spectated by CzarDB, was made up of teams we’ve all seen before, with only one new face at seed #8:

NME
Duck Motif
Healbook
SCUBA
Content Cat
lfn
37 handsome boys
Endroll

Winner’s Quarterfinals: Duck Motif vs. 37 handsome boys (0–3)

These two teams have a brief history in the NA League 2026, having met in Loser’s Top 8 during Event #5, where Duck Motif won 3–1. Both teams have been multi-time participants of the Top 8 stream but rarely had the chance to build a storyline further.

And the story has changed heavily since last time! 37 handsome boys swept the set 3–0, kickstarting their set with a knockout at Crableg Capital Splat Zones. They picked up a 51.3%–41.3% win at Hagglefish Market Turf War. Closing the set was a low-scoring Clam Blitz game at Scorch Gorge, where 37 handsome boys took the 32–20 win to advance.

Winner’s Semifinals: NME vs. SCUBA (3–0)

NME and SCUBA were approaching the semifinals from very different quarterfinals: NME had a swift 3–0 win over Endroll, while SCUBA fought a tight 3–2 set against Content Cat.

The set would follow NME’s record, starting with a knockout at Mahi-Mahi Splat Zones. Tower Control at MakoMart slowed NME down, but they still won 55–23. Rainmaker at Scorch Gorge, similar to the last set’s final game, was low-scoring, coming down to NME eking out the lead in overtime, 33–32, to head to Winner’s Finals.

Winner’s Finals: NME vs. Healbook (3–1)

After NME beat SCUBA, they met Healbook, who had also gone 3–0 in the previous set against 37 handsome boys. Both teams went undefeated in the Ladder Round; while NME was still undefeated where Healbook had lost a few games to lfn, if SCUBA couldn’t take a game from NME, Healbook looked like just the team to end the streak.

Game one started with Splat Zones, like every other game one in the Winner’s Bracket. The map was Urchin Underpass. Healbook looked strong at the start, taking NME down three players and getting to 30. But once NME warmed up, they took the lead. The last two minutes turned into a stalemate of teams only getting penalty points. Healbook brought the game into overtime, but lost the zone; NME took game one 88–72.

Tower Control at Crableg Capital was NME’s turn to take the early lead: from the first checkpoint through the second quickly, they finally went down two players, ending the run at 22. Healbook took until the last minute to get through their first checkpoint, but with JJaeigh and their Sorella Brella escorting the tower, they blew past NME’s lead. Healbook gave NME their first loss of the day after winning 94–78.

JJaeigh’s Inkjet, sights set on Dark after splatting a Booyah Bomb-ing Zero.

Turf War at Inkblot Art Academy was not the best for Healbook. Before the halfway point, the Danger! indicator was over their heads, remaining there for the better part of a minute, leaving once they splatted three members of NME to take map control back. Still, in the final 30 seconds, they were down most of their players again and again, leading to NME winning 55.8%–38.2%.

Game four was Rainmaker at Mahi-Mahi Resort, which NME had a record of easily KO-ing on. NME cleared their checkpoint first, but Healbook popped the shield, taking down two of NME’s players and turning it into a wipeout. Healbook then cleared their checkpoint and took the lead. All it took for NME to turn the game on its head was two of Healbook’s players down; NME got the knockout with ample time to spare.

Loser’s Semifinals: Content Cat vs. SCUBA (3–1)

Content Cat fought their way up from the Loser’s Bracket, going 3–1 over Endroll and 37 handsome boys, earning the runback against SCUBA. SCUBA had just 3–0’d lfn to get to the semifinals.

SCUBA reverse-swept Content Cat in the quarterfinals, and this set started similarly. Content Cat again won games one and two (Manta Maria Tower Control, 86–43; MakoMart Turf War, 50.9%–46.7%), and SCUBA won game three (Museum d’Alfonsino Clam Blitz, 58–40) to stop the set shutout. However, game four (Rainmaker at Undertow Spillway), went in Content Cat’s favor, 74–42, letting them continue to Loser’s Finals.

Loser’s Finals: Healbook vs. Content Cat (1–3)

The commentators were excited to spectate this matchup between two teams forging their way with their favorite weapons, rather than the ones that were strong in the meta. For this set in particular, they anticipated the “JJaeigh vs. Hawaiian Inkjet extravaganza,” since Inkjet isn’t a special too commonly seen in top level play.

Another Loser’s Bracket set starting with Tower Control, this time at Hagglefish Market. Healbook passed the first checkpoint at the cost of three players, which led to a wipeout, then Content Cat taking their first checkpoint and the lead. After clearing the second checkpoint, Content Cat used their specials one after the other to protect their path through the third checkpoint, and finally, to the knockout.

Hawaiian’s Inkjet, deployed and on its way to keep Healbook away from the tower. Chronos’s Booyah Bomb is ready to pave the way to the KO past the checkpoint.

As far as Clam Blitz games go, this one at Crableg Capital wasn’t unusual for the first score not occurring until halfway through the timer. Content Cat wiped out Healbook, creating an opening to score to 42 in one go. One minute later, Healbook scored and ended up tying with Content Cat, and were pushed back one point. In overtime, Healbook opened the basket, throwing in enough clams to take the lead, 60–58.

During the Splat Zones at MakoMart game, the spectator camera picked up plenty of Blaster double-splats from Len. and Pika. An eager Healbook took the zone first, but were wiped out, letting Content Cat get nearly halfway through their zone timer before recovering. An Ink Vac from Content Cat kept Healbook one point away from the lead, and critically, helped take Healbook down in a delayed wipeout, for Content Cat to KO.

At Undertow Spillway for Rainmaker, both teams amped the aggression up, splatting left and right, finding themselves down two or more teammates most of the game. It took three minutes for Content Cat to clear the first checkpoint, able to make a push after wiping Healbook out. A series of small, pressuring pushes brought Content Cat to 1 point remaining, where the score would settle, 99–3, for Content Cat to win the set.

Grand Finals: NME vs. Content Cat (3–0)

For Content Cat, this was their second time in the Grand Finals of the 2026 NA League. NME’s previous highest spot was third place, making this their best placement yet. Regardless of the winner, someone would be reaching a new high score!

The set started with MakoMart Splat Zones. Content Cat took the zone from NME, getting as far as 40 before NME took it back. Nearly a minute and a half later, NME had the zone long enough to take the lead. An Ink Vac from Content Cat stopped NME at 17, but another minute later, NME still finished the game with a knockout win.

Tower Control at Hagglefish Market appeared again. A minute and a half-long push from NME saw them go from the first checkpoint all the way to 30, by the time the clock was at the halfway mark. Content Cat managed to get their first checkpoint, but were wiped out afterward. Wiped out a second time before the game ended, Content Cat couldn’t get onto the tower before overtime ended, resulting in another NME win, 79–47.

No one expected to see DATKID pull out a Sploosh-o-matic for Rainmaker at Undertow Spillway, but it worked tremendously. NME had their first checkpoint in less than 30 seconds, and Content Cat was wiped out/delayed wiped out multiple times over the course of the game. Both teams fought extra hard in the last two minutes, but ultimately, NME was a bit closer to the goal, winning 90–85, and the Grand Finals set!

After stopping Content Cat from pushing the Rainmaker past 15, DATKID pauses to “Booyah!” before advancing. He does this twice more before the game ends.

The turnout for this week’s NA League event was shockingly low, at just 18 teams compared to the previous week’s 33. The event shared a date with the SendouQ Season 11 Finale and multiple LANs, including MomoCon, LAN of 10,000 Lakes, Chi-Shoals #42, and Little Dapple, which could explain the low attendance.

Another explanation could be the growing frustration at Nintendo for allowing players who were found breaking the rules (aimbot hacks, spoofing from non-NA regions, smurfing) to compete for weeks in the League, even going as far as letting them onto the Top 8 stream. The most notorious of these teams was FORFEIT, but also included GO GO SAHUR and Ayanokoji.

With Event #8, Nintendo silently banned these teams from the NA League, removing them from leaderboards, and even returned some points to teams who had competed and lost against the cheating teams. The lack of acknowledgment from Nintendo and length of time to ban the teams has made some players lose faith in the credibility of the tournament and the administration running it.

Two weeks remain in the Splatoon 3 North American League’s 2026 Regular Season. At the same time, the Splat World Series 2026 has its Second Edition Global Gauntlet Qualifier and Finals, dividing player attention. With most teams having played enough events to be eligible for the NA League Playoffs, how many will be satisfied with their standings and refrain from participating in any more events?

Be there for these last two weeks to find out!

Original Posting Date: May 26, 2026 at Splatoon Stronghold.

Written and formatted for publication by YELLOW.