Splatoon 3 North American League Event #3 (Regular Season Week 1)

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Splatoon 3 North American League Event #3 (Regular Season Week 1)

The Regular Season has begun for the Splatoon 3 North American League, starting on Saturday, October 4, 2025, lasting until November 22, 2025. Points that teams earn based on their placement in the North American League will start to apply towards their eligibility for the Playoffs in December. Points earned in the Preseason do not count towards Playoff eligibility.

The League Show Episode 3

The recap of last week’s bracket, taking up one third of episode 3’s total run time, included a nod to the many different ways that Splatoon can be enjoyed: while most competitive players prefer to play with a Pro Controller, Mellana had to give a shout-out to Adapt, FreeFlow’s teammate who plays in Handheld mode.

Switching to silly time, the League Show brought in three more community members for trivia time! Falco, Lily, and Chaedr were challenged to a set of Splatoon-related questions, and the winner was whoever reached five points first, which would end up being Chaedr. Questions–and answers–were:

1. Who is the first rival you face in Tableturf Battle? (Baby Jelly)
2. What new ranked battle mode was introduced in Splatoon 2? (Clam Blitz)
3. What can Super Sea Snails be used for in Splatoon 3? (Multiple correct answers; re-rolling gear was the first answer given)
4. Name four seasonal Splatfests in Splatoon 3. (Splatoween, Frosty Fest, Spring Fest, Summer Nights)
5. What is the relationship between Callie and Marie? (Cousins)
6. What exclamations can your Inkling (or Octoling) shout in Splatoon 3? (Booyah!, This Way!, and Ouch…)
7. What is the name of the rocket that appears in ‘Return of the Mammalians’? (The Spirit Lifter)
8. Which idol is a former member of the Octarian army? (Marina)

After the trivia section, the baton was passed to Kbot and EE, for another community question segment. This time, the questions were asked at Riptide, to a handful of folks. Questions included, “Which idol group would you want to collab with the most?” and “What is your favorite thing about Splatoon?”, the latter, to which the overwhelming majority responded with “community”!

Next Zach opened up a segment of Shiny Tips!, featuring game four of Winner’s Finals (Hypernova vs. FreeFlow at Tower Control Crableg Capital). Zach gave a play-by-play analysis of FreeFlow’s incredible tower push in overtime.

The League Show concluded with a reminder of the dates for all upcoming events, including the League Show, NA League, Sunday Scrim, and Playoffs.

Top 8 Bracket

The hosts this time were Mellana, Falco, and Lily, and the spectator camera operator was Power. At the time of writing, the Top 8 stream has over 28,000 views! The stream is almost five hours along; just under an hour longer than the first Preseason stream and about 20 minutes longer than last week’s stream.

This week, the teams in Top 8 included:

1. Five
2. Milky Way
3. Duck Motif
4. fofofo
5. Moonlight
6. Gourmet Race
7. Hypernova
8. Triggerfish Zones Supremacy (TZS)

Duck Motif, TZS, and Hypernova are all teams who have previously been on Top 8 streams for the North American League.

The first round, Winner’s Quarterfinals, would see these sets:

• Five vs. TZS
• fofofo vs. Moonlight
• Milky Way vs. Hypernova
• Duck Motif vs. Gourmet Race

And fofofo vs. Moonlight would be the first streamed set. If you plan on watching the replay, remember that the Splattercolor Screen is legal in this event.

Winner’s Quarterfinals: fofofo vs. Moonlight (2-3)

The Winner’s Quarterfinals between fofofo and Moonlight would open up to a game five set with all modes and all close games. As all other sets in this round would be decisively 3-0, they managed to pick the best set to stream!

For the first time in the NA League, the first game would be Tower Control instead of Splat Zones! The map was MakoMart. Fofofo would take the lead from Moonlight with a minute and a half to go, and came out of overtime with the first victory of the set, 67-60. Next up was Rainmaker at Museum d’Alfonsino. Fofofo was stopped short of a knockout just over a minute into the game, leaving their objective with just one tick to go! Moonlight would make the same push, but since Splatoon favors the team that gets the score first, Moonlight’s Rainmaker was pulled back to 2 ticks; in overtime, the scores wouldn’t change, letting fofofo take their second victory in a row, 99-98.

Turf War at Urchin Underpass saw Moonlight’s turf coverage in danger for a large part of the match, but as you can expect, the real game began in the last 30 seconds, and Moonlight clutched up for a 53.7% - 42.7% win. Next, Splat Zones would make its entrance into the set at Undertow Spillway. As the clock read 2:47, the score heavily favored fofofo, and a fight broke out over a neutral zone, lasting 20 seconds. Fofofo won that fight, but Moonlight would end up with the lead with 19 seconds remaining, and the final score was 95-78.

Game five–Clam Blitz was inevitable, and the map was Inkblot Art Academy. Both teams played slowly and safely; it would take almost three minutes for the first score of the game, which belonged to Moonlight. The situation was tense in the final 30 seconds, as fofofo had the basket open and were only two clams away from taking the lead, but the basket closed without any follow up, and Moonlight would win with a fantastic reverse-sweep set 3-2! The final score of the Clam Blitz game was 62-30.

Winner’s Semifinals: Milky Way vs. Duck Motif (3-0)

The teams advancing to round 2 were Five vs. Moonlight, and Milky Way vs. Duck Motif. Fofofo vs. TZS and Gourmet Race vs. Hypernova would take place in the Loser’s Bracket. In this week’s Top 8 bracket, this set would be the only one to not repeat at a later time on stream; the rest of the sets would all be between teams who faced off against one another already in the bracket.

Game one went to Splat Zones at Crableg Capital. Duck Motif took the zone first; by the end of the first minute, though, Milky Way had the lead and were burning through their objective fast. The game was over just after a minute and a half, ending in a rough knockout loss for Duck Motif. Tower Control at MakoMart would be next, and Duck Motif would be the team taking initiative to get points first. Two minutes into the match, Duck Motif went down three players, leading to Milky Way widening their lead. Duck Motif faced a team wipeout with two minutes remaining, and would lose the match, 11-60.

Game three was Clam Blitz at Um’ami Ruins, and this time, Milky Way took the first points. They would try to use a Booyah Bomb for cover; Duck Motif’s Charger took a shot in the dark and incredibly found a pick. Three minutes on the clock, both teams down two players each, and Duck Motif tossed their first Power Clam into the basket. One minute later, it was back to Milky Way gaining points, but it would come at the cost of three players. Duck Motif would take their turn next with a bigger push, but get 3/4ths of their team splatted for it. The game would go to overtime and end 88-59, with Duck Motif going to the Loser’s Bracket.

Winner’s Finals: Five vs Milky Way (3-1)

Pay close attention to this set, as we’ll be seeing plenty of repeats later down the road! The loser of this set would be sent to the Loser’s Quarterfinals to face off against Hypernova; the other side of the Loser’s Quarterfinals would be between Duck Motif and fofofo.

Game one, Splat Zones at Crableg Capital, saw 30 seconds pass by before anyone capped the zone for the first time, with that being broken by Milky Way. Five would take the zone during the next 30 seconds, and with three specials at the ready to defend their hold, they would be able to surpass Milky Way’s lead. The lead would certainly change hands a lot as these top-level teams clashed; going into the last 30 seconds, Milky Way made a push to 27-23. Just four seconds on the clock, and Five got a wipeout over Milky Way to cap off their 85-73 victory.

Game two was Tower control at Undertow Spillway. Five jumped at the objective, already getting the tower on the move just 12 seconds into the match. Then at 30 seconds remaining, the action started heating up as Five threatened to take the lead from Milky Way. They would get wiped out just one point from tying the score, and took the game into overtime for just a heartbeat before the game ended, with Five’s score being 48-49. Nobody, not even the commentators, knew who won in overtime until Judd raised his flag for Milky Way.

Game three at Rainmaker Humpback Pump Track started off on the wrong foot for Milky Way, in a technical sense: Jared would get disconnected 17 seconds into the game, forcing a replay, as one minute had not passed yet, making the replay eligible. Game 3.5 would see a strong start from Five, with an Ink Vac to power a push all the way to 40 just about 30 seconds in. The game would see some back-and-forth wipeouts; first on Five, then Milky Way, and again on Five with just fifteen seconds left on the clock, but the setbacks wouldn’t stop Five from taking the win, 84-63.

Game four, Clam Blitz at Museum d’Alfonsino, would see Milky Way taking a delayed team wipe in exchange for their first Power Clam into the basket. They would soon make another push, bringing the score to 52-100, which would stay for a few minutes as the teams battled back and forth, until Five would get their own Power Clam into the basket. Ten seconds before the timer ran out, and Five broke open the basket again. Using Triple Inkstrikes to guard their advance, they were able to take the lead right as overtime began! With a final score of 51-48, Five earned their way into Grand Finals and sent Milky Way into the Loser’s Bracket.

Loser’s Semifinals: fofofo vs. Moonlight (2-3) (again)

It’s fofofo vs. Moonlight, again! Get used to this pattern; there will be plenty of repeats as the Top 8 stream continues! Fofofo, having gone 3-0 against Duck Motif in Loser’s Quarterfinals, would be going for the revenge match against Moonlight, who won 3-1 over Hypernova.

The first game, Tower Control at MakoMart… Again! This was also the map/mode in game one of Winner’s Quarterfinals between these two. The commentators would be up in delight over Basil’s E-liter 4K. And how could you blame them; an E-liter 4K getting a triple–two with one shot–in overtime and winning 63-58 while Moonlight was down one player due to a last-second disconnection is the definition of a “clutch moment”. The next game, Turf War at Um’ami Ruins, was just as close. Last week’s closest Turf War win of just 1.4% has been beaten, for a new record closest win, by just 1.2%! Moonlight would be the team now holding that new record with their 49.8% - 48.6% win.

Game three, Clam Blitz at Urchin Underpass, was all fofofo; they were the only team to get any points until Moonlight finally scored with just 30 seconds in the match. Without time on their side, and in overtime, Moonlight would get close, but the victory would go to fofofo, 54-50. Game four would be Rainmaker at Museum d’Alfonsino once more. Moonlight’s initial push to the first checkpoint would be the only score for about two minutes, until fofofo brought their Rainmaker to a near tie. They would inch further forward, enough to secure a lead and a 53-40 win.

Another game five for these teams, ending on Splat Zones at Inkblot Art Academy. Fofofo would start with a great lead, ending at 46 points remaining to knock out. They would then go down three players, enabling Moonlight to begin their own push, which saw them take the lead. Moonlight’s score would be halted with ten points left to go; less than half of the clock remained, and fofofo would be on track to pass Moonlight’s lead. After a 20-second firefight, Moonlight was able to take possession, which they would hold all the way to a knockout victory with just over a minute to spare.

Loser’s Finals: Milky Way vs. Moonlight (3-0)

Moonlight advanced to meet Milky Way in Loser’s Finals, to determine who would take the stage in Grand Finals. For the second time in a row, Moonlight’s game one would be Tower Control at MakoMart. After a series of small pushes, they would have the tower at the first checkpoint by the end of the first minute. Milky Way would get through the first checkpoint, but not much further, and the score would sit in place until halfway through the match. Moonlight would get through their first checkpoint, but not as far as their opponent, and once more Milky Way got the tower moving, ending the match with a score of 58-33.

Game two was at Splat Zones Inkblot Art Academy, which once again, Moonlight was coming off the heels of. While the zone would be Milky Way’s at the end of the first minute, Moonlight had the 60-80 lead. Much would look the same one minute later, except Moonlight’s lead was now 23-80. Milky Way would win a 15-second neutral zone fight and take the lead with just over two minutes left. Their control would end in a wipeout as Moonlight’s Kraken Royale shredded through Milky Way’s Crab Tank. Both teams fought fiercely in overtime; Moonlight couldn’t take the zone after ten seconds of it being neutral, and overtime ended for them 84-97.

Game three went to Clam Blitz at Museum d’Alfonsino. It would take about a minute and a half for the first points to be scored, this time by Milky Way, with two Power Clams and a handful of smaller ones into the basket. Going into the last minute, Moonlight would have 22 clams shared by their players compared to Milky Way’s zero, but it would still take them ten seconds into overtime to finally make their first move, however, just shy of Milky Way’s score, 41-55. Milky Way would now go to Grand Finals for another try at Five.

Grand Finals: Five vs. Milky Way (1-3)

Grand Finals would finally kick off, Five coming from the Winner’s bracket, and Milky Way from the Loser’s bracket, with one hour and some minutes left in the stream. Get ready for some repeats and rematches, as this one went on for a while!

Reminiscent of Winner’s Finals, game one went to Splat Zones at Crableg Capital. The first minute would end with Milky Way at a 70-point lead already. After another minute, the situation was much more dire for Five, with the scoreboard 81-9. Milky Way having a Splattershot Pro and Splat Dualies meant a plethora of Crab Tanks, boosted by Five also having Splat Dualies. Crab Tank vs. Crab Tank 1v1, and Five took the win. It wouldn’t win Five the match, and they would lose in a knockout.

Next was Tower Control at Inkblot Art Academy. Milky Way had the tower by the time one minute had passed, but Five was sitting at a pretty solid spot, having taken the tower to their second checkpoint. Milky Way’s push ended up only being one point, and then Five was back to riding the tower to the second checkpoint. Under a minute now, and Milky Way would finally add more than one point to their name, but not get past the first checkpoint, and would get wiped out by Five as the game closed, with Five winning 47-23.

Rainmaker at Museum d’Alfonsino opened up to an explosion as Five took their first checkpoint at the 30 second mark: Five would get wiped out, but a parting Ink Vac shot took down two members of Milky Way. As everyone respawned, again the field would be leveled with two players down on Milky Way’s side and three down on Five. The numbers advantage would see Milky Way tie the score as both teams passed the first checkpoint. Neither team would get too far past the other; even in overtime, Five’s final push was short of matching Milky Way’s, ending the game at a close 63-64 for Five.

Clam Blitz at Um’ami Ruins set the stage for the final match of Grand Finals. It would be a slow, stalemate-y one as teams skirmished in the middle of the map, never getting far enough to score. Fortunately Five was able to toss in a Power Clam as the clock reached a minute and a half remaining. The game would reach overtime, and Milky Way was able to take a quick lead, ending the game with a score of 23-20, and bringing the stream to a Grand Finals Reset.

Grand Finals Reset: Five vs. Milky Way (1-3) (again)

Going into the Grand Finals Reset was the third time Five would face Milky Way on stream. As far as maps and modes were concerned, nothing new would rear its head as all of the map and mode combinations chosen were previously played between these teams. Twelve matches between all of the sets these two teams played, and Turf War would not be in any of them!

The first runback was to Clam Blitz at Museum d’Alfonsino, first played in Winner’s Finals game four. As Milky Way went on to score the first points in the match, at about the three minute mark, disaster struck as Queue disconnected; as two minutes had already passed, the disconnection was not eligible for a replay, so Milky Way was stuck playing the rest of the match as a 3v4. In one 23-second push, Five was able to take their score from 100 to a knockout victory!

The second–no, third repeat was to Splat Zones at Crableg Capital, which was game one of both Winner’s Finals and Grand Finals. Five would open with a very comfortable push, all the way to 18 points remaining to win about a minute and 45 seconds into the match. Milky Way had a low penalty and was able to chip away at their objective and would take the lead–and a knockout–as the clock reached its halfway point. Knockout for knockout, the Grand Finals Reset was now tied 1-1.

Rainmaker at Humpback Pump Track, from game three in Winner’s Finals, was next. It took a minute and a half for the first team–Milky Way–to clear the first checkpoint. At about the halfway point, both teams would have another specials showdown; Triple Inkstrikes vs. Triple Inkstrikes to protect the Rainmaker. Five would win the face-off and get a triple over Milky Way, giving them the opportunity to pass their first checkpoint and move it enough to take a two-point lead. With a minute and a half remaining, Milky Way took a slightly bigger lead, 52-58, over Five, which would hold them to the end.

Both teams returned to the setting of Grand Finals’ game two, Tower Control at Inkblot Art Academy. The tower moved a lot in the first minute, but looking at the 82-92 score favoring Milky Way wouldn’t give that impression. Five passed the first checkpoint, and their momentum got them to a nice 28-82 score with just under three minutes left in the game. Five would go down two players and let Milky Way pass their first checkpoint, and again through the second, and with one minute to go, a triple on Five saw Milky Way take the third checkpoint and the lead, ultimately to a final score of 90-72.

The first week of the Regular Season saw an influx of top level teams and Preseason teams returning to the official Nintendo stream for their shot at points toward eligibility for the Playoffs in December. How many will make it back to the Top 8 next week?

Original Posting Date: October 7, 2025

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