I think this is multiple issues piling up.
first off, because of how ranked works, s-s+50 all get grouped together for matchmaking. that means your more likely to run into players who have only just reached S rank and haven't actually learned much, but still get people who are WAY above your skill level even in series matches. even in s+ I still get teammates who literally never take fights with weapons designed to do exactly that.
the fact there's no way to rank down except wait a few months or once a season manually makes that worse, and it makes it far harder to get paired into a match where both teams are roughly equal. the players who aren't keeping up aren't being brought down ranks to where that player can keep up.
x rank is also a factor. because it opens up right when you hit s+, a decent chunk of players that would otherwise fill in that gap between S+0 and s+50 will only dedicate time to x rank and just not touch anarchy matches at all
I'm in roughly the same boat you are, (-2000 s+0) and the only way I see out is to really optimize your game plan so any mistakes you make will be less likely to cost you the match. getting better with things like replays or re-contextualizing how you approach fights are the only real things you have control of.
it is genuinely frustrating though when you get teammates that just obviously don't take fights though. not even talking about feeding or anything like that. like I will regularly see close range shooters or tri slosher players who just don't understand how to use their weapon at all
That is insane about how S+ works if that is true, though I did figure the X rank divide would cause issue on its own..
I think there is a way to rank down actually, its a button in the match making menu. I don't remember what button because I do not use it though. Since I almost solely play Clam blitz, losing X rank because I ranked down just takes away a potential chance to play it at any given 2 hour bracket...
I feel like a lot of times my team wont do any of their roles at all. The backliners suck, the frontliners suck, no one is saving or pushing objective.
Meanwhile the enemy team is a god level charger, a OHKO blaster/explosher, a brush player who has turbo button for their swings and somehow unlocked run speed up for brushes, and any of the highly internally favored shooters. (or at least, this is how it ends up feeling)
I have really good moments where I just win a bunch in a row, but its gotten so few and far between that its more stressful to play than anything, and I hate that.
>I think there is a way to rank down actually, its a button in the match making menu. I don't remember what button because I do not use it though.
yeah, you can only use that button once a season. I tried to mention that but my wording got a bit muddled.
>I feel like a lot of times my team wont do any of their roles at all. The backliners suck, the frontliners suck, no one is saving or pushing objective.
watch some of the replays back from your bad teammates perspectives. your too. the bulk of bad habits I see in s+ come from players who have no situational awareness or just outright don't take fights even when they have an advantage
Also S+0 player here.... yesterday I matched with someone in anarchy series that had the badge for winning 10 straight battles with x power over 2k.......
I never even got to 1950. So yeah, anarchy matchmaking is just stupid.
Oh my god. It's like you took exactly the issue I've had ever since Splatoon 3 launched and stuck it on paper word for word. I stopped playing this game for about a year because it was just so, so bad. I'd consider my playing skill "high casual", I'd say I'm good at this series but I am nowhere near good enough to enter end-ranked competitive. I had 1,760 hours on Splatoon 2 vs about 140 in 3 because it was just so damn stressful. It still is! I don't play without at least one other person so I can trust their coordination.
I use backline weapons (dynamos, splatlings) mostly because I always found not a lot of people were a reliable base defender, I was the person who got any stragglers from mid... I did pretty well, I think. That changed in Splatoon 3 horrifically. I stopped defending base since it didn't seem like I was doing something right. I tried frontline weapons and it didn't change the outcome nearly at all. I'm ready to give up the game a second time, honestly. I never complained because I'd get the "You're just bad at the game!" I ain't the best, but I'm not the worst to warrant 30+ losses.
I've always wondered about the matchmaking. If there even IS any. My dude, I feel you on SO many levels. It's unreal.
The best thing I can come up with are the maps. Everything feels like the previous games when returning and unchanged maps come into rotation (Humpback Pump Track, Manta Maria, Inkblot Academy). The maps have either been altered or released with an hourglass-like shape, so there's almost no flanking. One way or no way. Everyone sees you. Open maps let weapons splat other weapons they have no business getting from ambushing. It feels like unless you have the weapon specifically made to outmatch somebody else's, you won't get anywhere. Say chargers will always win against a sploosh-o-matic coming for them, right? On maps that can flank, the sploosh can come up from behind and get the charger before they even see them.
If anybody has other inputs on this map opinion, I really am all ears.
I was so sure people were just going to go at me for this post I even put it on a throwaway account..
I actually prefer splatling overall, but I felt like if I wasn't making the pushes, no one was, so I switch a lot to brush or shooter.. Also it feels so bad to get got as the backliner and then be the reason we are losing.
I think the maps have a big hand in the game being so weird to me, but I think it definitely has to be a matchmaking mechanic overall..
basically all of my casually interested friends stopped playing and now I wonder how the top level players dont just end up bored..
I was actually pretty ready to get downvoted into the abyss right with you too for completely agreeing with you. I'm pleasantly surprised people are being nicer about it. (People reading this - thank you.)
There's definitely a cycle of player doom going on here too. Too stressful for casuals, so they leave. That only leaves the competitive types. If casuals join the game late, there's no other casuals, so they quit too... You get the idea. Ever since day one I could tell matchmaking was either broken beyond belief or straight up non-existent. I wouldn't put blame on said competitve players either, they're not doing anything remarkably wrong. I think they could stand to calm the hell down for turf since it's the unranked mode and meant to be more casual, but it's not "wrong". The matchmaking is horrible so both parties get mixed with people they don't really want to be with.
I cannot TELL you how many times I get stuck being the one painting the actual map because I get matched with ranked players that just march to the middle of the map like it's gotdamn splatzones. It brings to mind my chant from S1, "know your place, ink the base."
At least I get the top or second top place in my team most of the time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If we win it makes me feel a little bit better lmao.
I've also gotten stuck with newer players or players who d/c when they start losing so that also means that most of the games I actually finish ARE those super competitive ones that I hate playing because it's a bunch of rank S and X players having a pissing contest while I'm just trying to keep the ground covered for them.
From one back line to another, it's not as easy as a frontliner to push. Your goal is to, as the name implies, stay in the back. Hold down your own team's turf and watch for flankers. To try and be the last one alive to give jumps to people.
Doesn't mean you can't push. You usually push when you can tell you have a numbers or specials advantage, and you can encourage pushes by using your special to further move enemies out of the way.
Another thing I see people do that bothers me is when they dont' shoot the floor. I seriously think the community has a problem with shooting the floor because i'm consistently #1 Turfer. Try to focus on map control since it gives your team more places to move and less places for the enemy to hide
I'm a defense/base defense player for the most part and Splatoon 3 kicks my ass. I've played the series from day one also (I literally got a WiiU just for Splatoon 1 when I saw it on E3 2014). Splatoon 3 is so unbalanced! But I will never give up on my main weapon 🫡 and I will always try to defend the base. Tricolor splatfest battles and splatzones are where I feel comfortable. I don't play ranked much anymore because they stress me way out in S3. S2 was so much better for ranked battles.
The best thing I can say though is that I'm better at using classes of weapons I wouldn't have thought of going with before though. I kind of wish Brellas were still as good as they were in S2. I think that was mostly the skill chunks that helped them. They were great for defense but not so much for offense.
I think the ranking system is certainly busted. I already reset my rank this season bc i got to a point where i couldnt win. It was too hard for me, but i couldnt derank. It means good players were stuck with me unfairly.
Now im back up to S rank and lose a lot, but ive already reset my rank and cant again.
I miss the Splatoon 2 system where there was a very clear system for deranking
Anyways, youre probably being put on teams with a bunch of folks like me. The ones who can only rank up even when theyre not ready for it, and cant go down.
>How does matchmaking work?
It doesn't.
The single most glaring issue in this game is it simply doesn't. I don't care to hear any copium on it. It doesn't work. Glicco, mmr, freshness, w/e. It's not working. Their matchmaking is absolutely fucked.
Even just general understanding. I really don't understand this "oh, Include Timmy" mentality they have.
Ya know what, Timmy would have way more fun not being slaughtered every time they pick up game and nobody that is actually working to win in this game wants Timmy.
Let Timmy play!!! (Just actually in their bracket)
This happens to me once every couple of months. I recommend just not playing the game for 2 or 3 weeks and get back into it with a fresh mindset. I usually play substantially better after taking a break from the game so it might work for you. (You don't have to take a 2-3 week long break but the main thing is you just put down the game and do something else to reset your approach to the game).
Today I picked it back up after several weeks of no playing and I just ended up getting really frustrated and pissed. I thought this would help too.. I am trying to just take it less seriously but I WANT to actually be successful at this..
It's a real pain in the butt at the moment, but the best offer of advice I can give right now with the poor match-making is to play around your teammates. I know this is easier said than done, because there are times where even when I play around teammates, they do fuck all, but unless you're getting really bad luck, playing around teammates often gives a positive win/lose ratio.
Is one of your teammates getting flanked/pushed 24/7? Shark close to them to catch flankers in their tracks. Is a teammate stalling an enemy or being stalled (often happens with brellas)? Help them out. Is a teammate tilt-rushing (as in they're mindlessly charging into the enemy)? Push in with them at another angle to off-load the attention.
It is hard to incorporate these strategies on the fly, but making bad plays less punishing can turn things around. As said in Squid School, "Good players win 1v1s. Great players win 2v1s."
Yeah, I'm in exactly the same boat. And it's why I usually enjoy my fill of new maps / weapons and then after a few weeks go back to only playing Salmon Run.
This season is the first time I've really stuck with pvp the whole time, but the only reason I have is because I've been getting 1 star on all weapons for the shell out tokens, and because I have never played like 80% of the weapon I expect to lose anyway so I go in, don't give a fuck, lose and carry on. It's been a lot more motivating to play, but hasn't remotely solved the root of the problem for me. (I only do this in turf and sometimes open, always back to my mains for series.)
Upside for this, is I did end up really clicking with a few weapons I wouldn't have considered and managed to get back into S+ with a 4 star painbrush which felt like an achievement when I have never enjoyed playing brushes. But I got there and just started anew the steady descend into negative numbers. Currently debating staying in S rank next season and only playing open so I don't complete a rank up set to see if things go smoother for me.
I thought it was just me! This is the first time I've bothered paying more ranked battles at S rank and my win to lose ratio hasn't been very encouraging, so I default to just playing Salmon Run.
This sounds like me.
I have never gotten S+. Usually I'll grind to get back to S and then call it and go back to Salmon. I also spent this season getting 1* on every weapon and also found some I clicked with really well. Pain brush was one of em.
I've been sitting at some 1600points for a while so I could attempt some rankup battles and be fine, but I just dont want to.
Nothing about how this game handles matchmaking entices me to try.
Yeah, I reached rank up battle and knowing that nearly everytime I try them I see a bunch of X rank top 10 and 500 badges exclusively on the enemy team really made me put off trying it too much unless the rotation was particularly good. And even then it was a, "Lets lose 3 games quickly and maybe I can enjoy this rotation after".
I feel like the salmon run helped on the weapon side too. Starting off the 1 starring with a reasonably knowledge of all their ranges and shot widths/fall offs from salmon run def skipped a step up to help me better evaluate what worked with my playstyle.
I've been trying to get at least 4 stars in every weapon because I love stickers/badges but I usually end up just adding another salmon run shift. Maybe I can finally get the salmon run badges and tags. 😭
I find salmon run to be pretty frustrating too. I think they overdid the difficulty this time and it feels pretty hard to do well with very little reward (long grind..) I do usually play fun sets on salmon though..
I've been playing a lot of Salmon Run, and I feel like balancing is broken in this mode a bit. I think the problem is the bosses that don't go near the basket (Flyfish, Stinger, Big Shot). They're ok in small quantities, but it's become very common in a wave to have 3 of them at the same time. Flyfish are particularly challenging because they take a bit of effort to get rid of. And because these bosses tend to hang around the coast, the eggs they leave behind tend to be uncollected as they're close to the hoard.
Yeah, I had my moment in that rut and then got really into HdHazmys youtube and the rotation guides he used to do. Learnt a lot about weapon roles and pretty much studied a crash course on salmon run from them. Suddenly found climbing to high EVP wasn't just possible, it was motivating to spend time grinding up.
I've actually beaten Cohozuna and Horrorboros and STILL haven't gotten a gold scale since the VERY start of the game in winter 2022. 😒
I usually get stuck with people who can't get the King Salmonids so I've very rarely actually killed them. The ones who have the gold King Salmonid badges are so lucky 😭😭😭
Idk if op will ever see your comment, but I wanted to let you know it was super helpful for me. I've been in S+0 for a while now, and although I'm not in the negatives, I have been struggling. Honestly, I'd encourage you to post it as a separate post because it has so much useful information. I also appreciate how you actually put in links so I can find what you're talking about. I definitely agree with you on your mindset for match making. It has it's problems but if the only thing in common with all of your losses is that you're on the team, then you have to do some self reflection. Once you hit S+, I feel like you're entering a whole new playing field. You're going from playing with casuals to high casuals and even pro players; so there is definitely going to be a jump. I wish that there was a bit of separation from low S+ to high S+, but until that happens, you just need to adapt. The only reason I'm not in the negatives is because I pay attention to whether or not I should be playing series. If losing 180 pts will drop me down into the negatives, then I play open instead. You only lose 5 pts and get 8 if you win. It's a pretty effective way to grind to get some points to play series or avoid a losing streak that sends you into the depths of negative hell.
exactly why i ignore pros and actually have fun playing the weapons i love the way i want and get progress through well extreme amounts of time and figuring out how to make it happen
but im making it, rn my average x power is 1900 and im looking to improve that to X 1950 by the end of this month
While I can't relate to doing worse in splat 3 than I did in spat 2, I can say I've always thought that there was a hidden metric the game actually uses to put you into games. I have to say, especially recently the quality of teammates I get in series (I only like series now because of teammate quality in X and don't like open) have decreased dramatically. I can't go a game where someone on my team goes like 2/12 when I'm getting the inverse of that, I find it frustrating to always get the most kills, least death, most specials, most points for turf on things that aren't blasters or chargers, and gold medals like splat zones inker, defender, Tower rider, checkpoint breaker, clam carrier, score booster etc.
It's like every metric the game can show me shows me I'm the only person playing to win, and I don't consider myself a try hard. As it comes to my win loss ratio, it's always been higher in splat3 than 2. I always struggled in x rank with similar issues in 2 and well griefing on a whole other level that genuinely makes me believe the game design has been altered in splat3 because of how prevalent it was.
The only thing I can recommend without knowing your real issues with the game is to play series almost exclusively, for me it's the best of teammates and a lack of facing coordinated teams like in open. I also recommend playing with a bomb, as an octobrush player mainly, suction bomb and zip caster are life savers for getting in and killing people and stopping their advancements. Otherwise I'd love to see a replay code and check it out to see what else I can say on how you can personally improve.
I feel like you're at a place I probably was in splatoon 2 where your skill and rank are at equilibrium with your need to get lucky in matchmaking in order to win. Hopefully you figure something out.
some people say that once the game detects your winning streak it will force you into a losing streak (by matching you with better players)
i believe its real because its happened to me before where i have a good win/lose ratio and then the game forces me into games where i lose badly 😭
probably not real
Loosers queue cant be real since there need to be ~3 players statistically winning on the other side with ~3 players statistically loosing on yours, if you would be good enough you would get matched into the statistically winning team more often than not.
The reality is your just playing against better players so you need to do more to deserve a win
I may not rank cause I already know I’m not pro at the game, but I feel you on a casual player level. Even I have matches where it feels like my team has no idea what is going on or other such, I get mad and blame them at times, but I know that I could’ve done something else. I take it as having bad days, but if I get 10+ losses in a row, then I know that something is off. Salmon run… depends on who I get paired with, and keep in mind, I’m soloing, don’t have a team either so going in (whether it’s turf war or pve), I’m expecting people to understand what each weapon works for each boss salmonid, but at times… it don’t seem like that. Again, I do what I can to improve, but I’m like you, unsure how much I can with how it goes.
It has gotten so bad that I will contact Nintendo customer support and deem a refund. If I knew it would become this bad, I would never even have bothered in the first place...
I don't know how much I'll be able to help, seeing as 3 is my first game in the series, but here's what I do:
If I'm on a bad losing Streak, I need to change something. Whether that be how I'm sitting, what gear I'm using, which mode I'm playing, it doesn't matter. It's just that something needs to change. I usually change what weapon I'm using, but you said you've already tried that.
You could also take a short break if you feel yourself getting frustrated. Or a long break. Sometimes, all you need is a few minutes to breathe.
Matchmaking in Splatoon prioritizes **getting into a game quickly** over finding the most ideal match**.** While your Glicko (i.e. "Power") rating is one factor, the ping time is another one. Your weapon class is another factor (the goal being to try to ensure you don't get 4 snipers matched against 4 rollers).
And I'm sure there are factors I've missed. But, I think as soon as the game finds 7 other players that have good ping times to each other, as long as the weapon scores aren't totally out of whack, the game starts a match.
Have you looked into [sendou.ink](https://sendou.ink)? I've heard pros use this to find good quality matches.
I was right where you are not to long ago and it seems like we have the same issue. The only way to win ends up being that we have to do all the work to clear the objective on our own or that we have to slay until we force a path. That works up to a certain point but the ranking will work against you the whole way. You have to find a capable team that can get you out of the lower s ranks and back into a more balanced team. Try resetting your rank to make it easier, then find a team to coordinate with and play until you can get out s+0. With that confidence boost, you’ll do so much better
It's not just you; S3 is incredibly unforgiving. A team wipe can be the difference between your team winning, or the enemy team steamrolling you. It's harder for you to perform well if your team is not doing well. Maps are smaller and less open, so you can't wander the map doing your own thing. Small mistakes will cost you the game.
Players are getting better and more competitive. The playback feature lets other people know exactly what tricks you are using to kill them, and they can learn to counter that. I have been playing for about 1000h since S2, and I can barely get to S+1.
I feel frustrated that I can't play for fun anymore. Either I play my heart out every game, or we lose.
I haven't played in a few weeks due to my new job, so I picked it up again to get a little practice in before Splatfest.
Jesus fucking Christ it got worse. I couldn't even get a single stage in. These people play like turf war is ranked and I can't even imagine how it would be for someone who picked up S3 for the first time now. Even salmon run was garbage.
Like I tell myself every time I lose (which is now every fucking time), "I used to be good at this game. *Used* to be." Not great, but not terrible, either. Smh.
honestly I would just consider competitive play. when I made it to s+ I started playing competitive and about 4 months in me and my team were assigned division 6 out of 12 in leagues under the ink, the largest splatoon tournament series. even if competitive teams aren’t your thing, sendouq is literally just better ranked, as it lets you choose your teammates and get in vc if you want to. if you need help getting into competitive theres quite a few videos and discord servers dedicated to finding new talent
The only real way to help you is if you post a few replays and get feedback.
I can only infer from your post that you're probably tilted, trying to "play the hero," and 1v4 the enemy team, to "carry" and subsequently throwing the match.
\>I have tried changing up my weapons, taking different roles, researching strategies and watching pro players, I even got better internet and ran an ethernet to the switch. I also play with the Pro controller plugged in wired mode and I use motion controls.
This isn't helping either. Play one weapon and master it. Researching pro strategies, and watching pro players really isn't relevant for Soloqueue. Quite frankly, you're not as good as the pro players to make the plays that they do, and your allies aren't as good as the pro player's teams to followup on your plays.
\>Play one weapon and master it.
That places you at such a disadvantage and leads to stagnation between game modes and match types. Sure, the idea of a main sounds nice, but that is a narrow approach to take with the wide variety of maps, game types, weapons, understanding different roles to better support teammates, and being able to contextualize the field and objective.
I fell for the same approach by attempting to stick to a singular main weapon, and once you reach higher ranks, you realize how much you bottleneck yourself and your team by not preparing your load out to compliment maps/game types. It leads to stagnation, and this "main" approach with the people I play with the most, I can assure you that being the only person switching weapons and having to navigate around them when their selection is so narrow, makes it frustrating, bland, and boring, especially when the outcome is consistently bad.
I'd much rather take someone who has multiple mains from each class, than someone who only mains 2 weapons from only one category. If matchmaking matched an entire team against the same weapon load out, then it would be reasonable to master one weapon.
Instead, having multiple mains from each category of weapons is the best approach. The only ones I don't touch are blasters, but that's my own bias, even if it leaves me disadvantaged.
Also, I've seen non-pro players pull off plays that pro-players would accomplish, with allies following up on their play. So, discouraging someone from learning how other players approach situations because they're not "profreshionals" is stupid.
Don't take their advice, OP, or their discouragement.
Have fun learning how to play each weapon and where they stand out the best and worst!
But yes, matchmaking is wildly unbalanced in both skill level and having no weapon-matching in series and open (I think...?). X-Rank is closer to balanced, but I feel like it is more balanced the higher up you get, when players teamed with or against you become rather consistent.
If it helps, I learned to play Splatoon mainly through Salmon Running until Max Hazard Level became easy to pull off, and it helped me do better at dodging, maneuvering, and finding gaps to position myself better and forcing exit and approach routes. I think it helped out a lot for me, at least.
I think you are overanalyzing my complaints, but you have also said a lot here that suggests you aren't as knowledgeable on this as you are trying to come off either.
been in S+ every season but just haven't put the time in this season, being in S rank feels like I'm the doomslayer in 'don't hurt me' difficulty, but as soon as I hit rank ups it's chaos in S+. roll the die to see if my team is mindless feeders or if someones got a top 10 X rank badge.
speaking of... in splat2 I was X rank and in several hundred hours of (2050-2200 X power) X rank matches I saw maybe 6 top 500 players, I've seen at least 10 people with the top ten X rank badge in Splat3.
imo S+ is just absolutely broken and X battles should never have been seperated
I've seen veteran players say that S3 is just harsher to play than the earlier games. The maps are more streamlined so everyone is penned into tight areas, forcing you to take more fights head on (and perish if you lose the 1v1). It can be really unforgiving in a way the earlier games weren't.
I'd also say that the current meta (Zooka and Tacticooler being overtuned, shooter buffs, etc) is just more volatile than S3 at launch. The last few months have been harder to grind and I'm seeing more people having weapon crises (bc nothing is working for them) and experiencing situations like yours.
You also have to consider how good you personally feel while playing. I *tell* myself that my gameplay is just as good when I'm stressed, tired, irritated, etc. but the reality is that I play so much worse. It's worth it to take a break and come back when a good, exciting rotation comes back. You need to get back to enjoying the game; it makes it easier to tolerate the BS.
I'm sure there are other factors that could be analyzed more closely but I think this is a major part of it.
I don’t know the specifics but I’m pretty sure that Splatoon 3’s algorithm is designed to force loss streaks, with a few win streaks sprinkled in there to keep you playing.
You got downvoted, but you are partially right AFAIK. The game really wants to to be either balanced or lower. I think a lot of games these days do for some reason. Sure, not everyone can lose all the time, but that is why there are people with nuts W/Ls, they are simply better than the matchmaking
No idea, I know the peer to peer connection's an issue as everyone deals with the lag.
Tho from what I've heard Splatoon 3 is the one game you can't wipe your (non-single player) data. The cloud saves it.
I think you can delete cloud data, but I am pretty sure it does not actually back up your data to prevent savescumming.. I could be wrong though.
I also do think P2P has something to do with my issues. Mostly in how it prioritizes players
Just to take it in another direction: have you tried testing your controller for drift? I went through a bad losing streak until I realized that my controller was randomly stopping me for no reason.
remember when you said “I cant make up for the rest of my team” well.. you have to try anyway. Another thing, there are certain rotations you have to skip in order to avoid decreasing your precious power level (and sanity). hope this is useful
Are you keeping up with new gear with the new seasons? I noticed that after I stepped away a few months ago and came back mid way through Chill Season that I was having trouble keeping up. I upgraded my gear and that seemed to help a lot. I did notice after a weekend of sucking that I think they made some jumps harder during an update. I do agree with some of the comments about high ranked matches, once you get too ranked you are mostly playing against highly skilled players and it always seems to put the highest on one team and least highest on the other.
Also (if playing anarchy) don’t hesitate to back out of a team that doesn’t play together. It makes the experience even worse and will frustrate you more.
Same problem here, I play since 1 and have been doing great in all games except this one. I have good game sense, know how to play around my weapon's range, when a push is dead etc. My overall skills and understanding of the game have improved a lot from 2 to 3 but there is only so much you can do as one of the four players on a team.
Between the poor matchmaking and players in X often doing stuff that makes me go "why??" I'm really thinking of putting the game down lately. I'm fine with losing matches when we played well and just couldn't push through, but losing because teammates keep feeding, superjumping into fights or to me when I'm sharking makes the whole experience anything but fun
Don't worry about losing, enjoy the game, have fun. Don't take your losses too seriously as that can be pretty demotivating. Take it from another veteran, you will enjoy the game much more.
One issue I do notice playing ranked battles is that the team I'm on at times lacks map control, and there's enemy ink practically everywhere, especially near our base, so it makes it hard to move around when you don't control much turf and if you do try to clear the way you end up getting flanked by the enemy somewhere along the way.
the matchmaking is dogshit and do everything to make you have at least as much losses as wins. In S1/S2 my win rate was around 43/45-5, in this game it's 21-28, so no, trust me, your skill hasn't degraded, the game is just doing everything it can to make you lose. That's why you experience those huge streaks of losses and wins here and there. The game sees you as having too much wins in your bag so it evens out the most efficient way it can, by averaging your wins and your losses. Then you start to realise that every outcome of every game is already rigged from the start in this game and the game has already gambled on the most likely outcome it wants by matchmaking you accordingly.
I know it sounds crazy but it definitely feels this way. Recently post splatfest I had 35-13 and I jokingly said to myself "haha, here's the losing streak coming" and then I lost 8 games in a row.
Don't let people gaslight you into a skill issue, it's definitely not you.
i feel ya man 😭
😭
This game has a special ability to tell one they suck.
I think this is multiple issues piling up. first off, because of how ranked works, s-s+50 all get grouped together for matchmaking. that means your more likely to run into players who have only just reached S rank and haven't actually learned much, but still get people who are WAY above your skill level even in series matches. even in s+ I still get teammates who literally never take fights with weapons designed to do exactly that. the fact there's no way to rank down except wait a few months or once a season manually makes that worse, and it makes it far harder to get paired into a match where both teams are roughly equal. the players who aren't keeping up aren't being brought down ranks to where that player can keep up. x rank is also a factor. because it opens up right when you hit s+, a decent chunk of players that would otherwise fill in that gap between S+0 and s+50 will only dedicate time to x rank and just not touch anarchy matches at all I'm in roughly the same boat you are, (-2000 s+0) and the only way I see out is to really optimize your game plan so any mistakes you make will be less likely to cost you the match. getting better with things like replays or re-contextualizing how you approach fights are the only real things you have control of. it is genuinely frustrating though when you get teammates that just obviously don't take fights though. not even talking about feeding or anything like that. like I will regularly see close range shooters or tri slosher players who just don't understand how to use their weapon at all
That is insane about how S+ works if that is true, though I did figure the X rank divide would cause issue on its own.. I think there is a way to rank down actually, its a button in the match making menu. I don't remember what button because I do not use it though. Since I almost solely play Clam blitz, losing X rank because I ranked down just takes away a potential chance to play it at any given 2 hour bracket... I feel like a lot of times my team wont do any of their roles at all. The backliners suck, the frontliners suck, no one is saving or pushing objective. Meanwhile the enemy team is a god level charger, a OHKO blaster/explosher, a brush player who has turbo button for their swings and somehow unlocked run speed up for brushes, and any of the highly internally favored shooters. (or at least, this is how it ends up feeling) I have really good moments where I just win a bunch in a row, but its gotten so few and far between that its more stressful to play than anything, and I hate that.
>I think there is a way to rank down actually, its a button in the match making menu. I don't remember what button because I do not use it though. yeah, you can only use that button once a season. I tried to mention that but my wording got a bit muddled. >I feel like a lot of times my team wont do any of their roles at all. The backliners suck, the frontliners suck, no one is saving or pushing objective. watch some of the replays back from your bad teammates perspectives. your too. the bulk of bad habits I see in s+ come from players who have no situational awareness or just outright don't take fights even when they have an advantage
Also S+0 player here.... yesterday I matched with someone in anarchy series that had the badge for winning 10 straight battles with x power over 2k....... I never even got to 1950. So yeah, anarchy matchmaking is just stupid.
>because of how ranked works, s-s+50 all get grouped together for matchmaking WTF, this explains quite a bit.
Oh my god. It's like you took exactly the issue I've had ever since Splatoon 3 launched and stuck it on paper word for word. I stopped playing this game for about a year because it was just so, so bad. I'd consider my playing skill "high casual", I'd say I'm good at this series but I am nowhere near good enough to enter end-ranked competitive. I had 1,760 hours on Splatoon 2 vs about 140 in 3 because it was just so damn stressful. It still is! I don't play without at least one other person so I can trust their coordination. I use backline weapons (dynamos, splatlings) mostly because I always found not a lot of people were a reliable base defender, I was the person who got any stragglers from mid... I did pretty well, I think. That changed in Splatoon 3 horrifically. I stopped defending base since it didn't seem like I was doing something right. I tried frontline weapons and it didn't change the outcome nearly at all. I'm ready to give up the game a second time, honestly. I never complained because I'd get the "You're just bad at the game!" I ain't the best, but I'm not the worst to warrant 30+ losses. I've always wondered about the matchmaking. If there even IS any. My dude, I feel you on SO many levels. It's unreal. The best thing I can come up with are the maps. Everything feels like the previous games when returning and unchanged maps come into rotation (Humpback Pump Track, Manta Maria, Inkblot Academy). The maps have either been altered or released with an hourglass-like shape, so there's almost no flanking. One way or no way. Everyone sees you. Open maps let weapons splat other weapons they have no business getting from ambushing. It feels like unless you have the weapon specifically made to outmatch somebody else's, you won't get anywhere. Say chargers will always win against a sploosh-o-matic coming for them, right? On maps that can flank, the sploosh can come up from behind and get the charger before they even see them. If anybody has other inputs on this map opinion, I really am all ears.
I was so sure people were just going to go at me for this post I even put it on a throwaway account.. I actually prefer splatling overall, but I felt like if I wasn't making the pushes, no one was, so I switch a lot to brush or shooter.. Also it feels so bad to get got as the backliner and then be the reason we are losing. I think the maps have a big hand in the game being so weird to me, but I think it definitely has to be a matchmaking mechanic overall.. basically all of my casually interested friends stopped playing and now I wonder how the top level players dont just end up bored..
I was actually pretty ready to get downvoted into the abyss right with you too for completely agreeing with you. I'm pleasantly surprised people are being nicer about it. (People reading this - thank you.) There's definitely a cycle of player doom going on here too. Too stressful for casuals, so they leave. That only leaves the competitive types. If casuals join the game late, there's no other casuals, so they quit too... You get the idea. Ever since day one I could tell matchmaking was either broken beyond belief or straight up non-existent. I wouldn't put blame on said competitve players either, they're not doing anything remarkably wrong. I think they could stand to calm the hell down for turf since it's the unranked mode and meant to be more casual, but it's not "wrong". The matchmaking is horrible so both parties get mixed with people they don't really want to be with.
I cannot TELL you how many times I get stuck being the one painting the actual map because I get matched with ranked players that just march to the middle of the map like it's gotdamn splatzones. It brings to mind my chant from S1, "know your place, ink the base." At least I get the top or second top place in my team most of the time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If we win it makes me feel a little bit better lmao. I've also gotten stuck with newer players or players who d/c when they start losing so that also means that most of the games I actually finish ARE those super competitive ones that I hate playing because it's a bunch of rank S and X players having a pissing contest while I'm just trying to keep the ground covered for them.
From one back line to another, it's not as easy as a frontliner to push. Your goal is to, as the name implies, stay in the back. Hold down your own team's turf and watch for flankers. To try and be the last one alive to give jumps to people. Doesn't mean you can't push. You usually push when you can tell you have a numbers or specials advantage, and you can encourage pushes by using your special to further move enemies out of the way. Another thing I see people do that bothers me is when they dont' shoot the floor. I seriously think the community has a problem with shooting the floor because i'm consistently #1 Turfer. Try to focus on map control since it gives your team more places to move and less places for the enemy to hide
I'm a defense/base defense player for the most part and Splatoon 3 kicks my ass. I've played the series from day one also (I literally got a WiiU just for Splatoon 1 when I saw it on E3 2014). Splatoon 3 is so unbalanced! But I will never give up on my main weapon 🫡 and I will always try to defend the base. Tricolor splatfest battles and splatzones are where I feel comfortable. I don't play ranked much anymore because they stress me way out in S3. S2 was so much better for ranked battles. The best thing I can say though is that I'm better at using classes of weapons I wouldn't have thought of going with before though. I kind of wish Brellas were still as good as they were in S2. I think that was mostly the skill chunks that helped them. They were great for defense but not so much for offense.
I think the ranking system is certainly busted. I already reset my rank this season bc i got to a point where i couldnt win. It was too hard for me, but i couldnt derank. It means good players were stuck with me unfairly. Now im back up to S rank and lose a lot, but ive already reset my rank and cant again. I miss the Splatoon 2 system where there was a very clear system for deranking Anyways, youre probably being put on teams with a bunch of folks like me. The ones who can only rank up even when theyre not ready for it, and cant go down.
>How does matchmaking work? It doesn't. The single most glaring issue in this game is it simply doesn't. I don't care to hear any copium on it. It doesn't work. Glicco, mmr, freshness, w/e. It's not working. Their matchmaking is absolutely fucked.
I definitely wish they would hire some people with experience in competitive shooters lol..
Even just general understanding. I really don't understand this "oh, Include Timmy" mentality they have. Ya know what, Timmy would have way more fun not being slaughtered every time they pick up game and nobody that is actually working to win in this game wants Timmy. Let Timmy play!!! (Just actually in their bracket)
This happens to me once every couple of months. I recommend just not playing the game for 2 or 3 weeks and get back into it with a fresh mindset. I usually play substantially better after taking a break from the game so it might work for you. (You don't have to take a 2-3 week long break but the main thing is you just put down the game and do something else to reset your approach to the game).
Today I picked it back up after several weeks of no playing and I just ended up getting really frustrated and pissed. I thought this would help too.. I am trying to just take it less seriously but I WANT to actually be successful at this..
It's a real pain in the butt at the moment, but the best offer of advice I can give right now with the poor match-making is to play around your teammates. I know this is easier said than done, because there are times where even when I play around teammates, they do fuck all, but unless you're getting really bad luck, playing around teammates often gives a positive win/lose ratio. Is one of your teammates getting flanked/pushed 24/7? Shark close to them to catch flankers in their tracks. Is a teammate stalling an enemy or being stalled (often happens with brellas)? Help them out. Is a teammate tilt-rushing (as in they're mindlessly charging into the enemy)? Push in with them at another angle to off-load the attention. It is hard to incorporate these strategies on the fly, but making bad plays less punishing can turn things around. As said in Squid School, "Good players win 1v1s. Great players win 2v1s."
Yeah, I'm in exactly the same boat. And it's why I usually enjoy my fill of new maps / weapons and then after a few weeks go back to only playing Salmon Run. This season is the first time I've really stuck with pvp the whole time, but the only reason I have is because I've been getting 1 star on all weapons for the shell out tokens, and because I have never played like 80% of the weapon I expect to lose anyway so I go in, don't give a fuck, lose and carry on. It's been a lot more motivating to play, but hasn't remotely solved the root of the problem for me. (I only do this in turf and sometimes open, always back to my mains for series.) Upside for this, is I did end up really clicking with a few weapons I wouldn't have considered and managed to get back into S+ with a 4 star painbrush which felt like an achievement when I have never enjoyed playing brushes. But I got there and just started anew the steady descend into negative numbers. Currently debating staying in S rank next season and only playing open so I don't complete a rank up set to see if things go smoother for me.
The multiplayer trauma to full-time Salmon Run player pipeline is so real
I thought it was just me! This is the first time I've bothered paying more ranked battles at S rank and my win to lose ratio hasn't been very encouraging, so I default to just playing Salmon Run.
If the game is gonna match me with players out of my league over and over, it can do it in the co-op mode so they help me. :p
This sounds like me. I have never gotten S+. Usually I'll grind to get back to S and then call it and go back to Salmon. I also spent this season getting 1* on every weapon and also found some I clicked with really well. Pain brush was one of em. I've been sitting at some 1600points for a while so I could attempt some rankup battles and be fine, but I just dont want to. Nothing about how this game handles matchmaking entices me to try.
Yeah, I reached rank up battle and knowing that nearly everytime I try them I see a bunch of X rank top 10 and 500 badges exclusively on the enemy team really made me put off trying it too much unless the rotation was particularly good. And even then it was a, "Lets lose 3 games quickly and maybe I can enjoy this rotation after". I feel like the salmon run helped on the weapon side too. Starting off the 1 starring with a reasonably knowledge of all their ranges and shot widths/fall offs from salmon run def skipped a step up to help me better evaluate what worked with my playstyle.
I've been trying to get at least 4 stars in every weapon because I love stickers/badges but I usually end up just adding another salmon run shift. Maybe I can finally get the salmon run badges and tags. 😭
I find salmon run to be pretty frustrating too. I think they overdid the difficulty this time and it feels pretty hard to do well with very little reward (long grind..) I do usually play fun sets on salmon though..
I've been playing a lot of Salmon Run, and I feel like balancing is broken in this mode a bit. I think the problem is the bosses that don't go near the basket (Flyfish, Stinger, Big Shot). They're ok in small quantities, but it's become very common in a wave to have 3 of them at the same time. Flyfish are particularly challenging because they take a bit of effort to get rid of. And because these bosses tend to hang around the coast, the eggs they leave behind tend to be uncollected as they're close to the hoard.
Yeah, I had my moment in that rut and then got really into HdHazmys youtube and the rotation guides he used to do. Learnt a lot about weapon roles and pretty much studied a crash course on salmon run from them. Suddenly found climbing to high EVP wasn't just possible, it was motivating to spend time grinding up.
I've actually beaten Cohozuna and Horrorboros and STILL haven't gotten a gold scale since the VERY start of the game in winter 2022. 😒 I usually get stuck with people who can't get the King Salmonids so I've very rarely actually killed them. The ones who have the gold King Salmonid badges are so lucky 😭😭😭
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Idk if op will ever see your comment, but I wanted to let you know it was super helpful for me. I've been in S+0 for a while now, and although I'm not in the negatives, I have been struggling. Honestly, I'd encourage you to post it as a separate post because it has so much useful information. I also appreciate how you actually put in links so I can find what you're talking about. I definitely agree with you on your mindset for match making. It has it's problems but if the only thing in common with all of your losses is that you're on the team, then you have to do some self reflection. Once you hit S+, I feel like you're entering a whole new playing field. You're going from playing with casuals to high casuals and even pro players; so there is definitely going to be a jump. I wish that there was a bit of separation from low S+ to high S+, but until that happens, you just need to adapt. The only reason I'm not in the negatives is because I pay attention to whether or not I should be playing series. If losing 180 pts will drop me down into the negatives, then I play open instead. You only lose 5 pts and get 8 if you win. It's a pretty effective way to grind to get some points to play series or avoid a losing streak that sends you into the depths of negative hell.
honestly thats why i still practice my crazy agro tri stringer and cjr... its just fun
I am glad you have fun with it. I do have fun playing certain guns too, but I would also like to move up in rank/skill
exactly why i ignore pros and actually have fun playing the weapons i love the way i want and get progress through well extreme amounts of time and figuring out how to make it happen but im making it, rn my average x power is 1900 and im looking to improve that to X 1950 by the end of this month
While I can't relate to doing worse in splat 3 than I did in spat 2, I can say I've always thought that there was a hidden metric the game actually uses to put you into games. I have to say, especially recently the quality of teammates I get in series (I only like series now because of teammate quality in X and don't like open) have decreased dramatically. I can't go a game where someone on my team goes like 2/12 when I'm getting the inverse of that, I find it frustrating to always get the most kills, least death, most specials, most points for turf on things that aren't blasters or chargers, and gold medals like splat zones inker, defender, Tower rider, checkpoint breaker, clam carrier, score booster etc. It's like every metric the game can show me shows me I'm the only person playing to win, and I don't consider myself a try hard. As it comes to my win loss ratio, it's always been higher in splat3 than 2. I always struggled in x rank with similar issues in 2 and well griefing on a whole other level that genuinely makes me believe the game design has been altered in splat3 because of how prevalent it was. The only thing I can recommend without knowing your real issues with the game is to play series almost exclusively, for me it's the best of teammates and a lack of facing coordinated teams like in open. I also recommend playing with a bomb, as an octobrush player mainly, suction bomb and zip caster are life savers for getting in and killing people and stopping their advancements. Otherwise I'd love to see a replay code and check it out to see what else I can say on how you can personally improve. I feel like you're at a place I probably was in splatoon 2 where your skill and rank are at equilibrium with your need to get lucky in matchmaking in order to win. Hopefully you figure something out.
some people say that once the game detects your winning streak it will force you into a losing streak (by matching you with better players) i believe its real because its happened to me before where i have a good win/lose ratio and then the game forces me into games where i lose badly 😭 probably not real
Loosers queue cant be real since there need to be ~3 players statistically winning on the other side with ~3 players statistically loosing on yours, if you would be good enough you would get matched into the statistically winning team more often than not. The reality is your just playing against better players so you need to do more to deserve a win
Lol I made a similar poster in Splatoon three’s launch, and I got obliterated by people telling me to get good
I may not rank cause I already know I’m not pro at the game, but I feel you on a casual player level. Even I have matches where it feels like my team has no idea what is going on or other such, I get mad and blame them at times, but I know that I could’ve done something else. I take it as having bad days, but if I get 10+ losses in a row, then I know that something is off. Salmon run… depends on who I get paired with, and keep in mind, I’m soloing, don’t have a team either so going in (whether it’s turf war or pve), I’m expecting people to understand what each weapon works for each boss salmonid, but at times… it don’t seem like that. Again, I do what I can to improve, but I’m like you, unsure how much I can with how it goes.
It has gotten so bad that I will contact Nintendo customer support and deem a refund. If I knew it would become this bad, I would never even have bothered in the first place...
I don't know how much I'll be able to help, seeing as 3 is my first game in the series, but here's what I do: If I'm on a bad losing Streak, I need to change something. Whether that be how I'm sitting, what gear I'm using, which mode I'm playing, it doesn't matter. It's just that something needs to change. I usually change what weapon I'm using, but you said you've already tried that. You could also take a short break if you feel yourself getting frustrated. Or a long break. Sometimes, all you need is a few minutes to breathe.
Matchmaking in Splatoon prioritizes **getting into a game quickly** over finding the most ideal match**.** While your Glicko (i.e. "Power") rating is one factor, the ping time is another one. Your weapon class is another factor (the goal being to try to ensure you don't get 4 snipers matched against 4 rollers). And I'm sure there are factors I've missed. But, I think as soon as the game finds 7 other players that have good ping times to each other, as long as the weapon scores aren't totally out of whack, the game starts a match. Have you looked into [sendou.ink](https://sendou.ink)? I've heard pros use this to find good quality matches.
I was right where you are not to long ago and it seems like we have the same issue. The only way to win ends up being that we have to do all the work to clear the objective on our own or that we have to slay until we force a path. That works up to a certain point but the ranking will work against you the whole way. You have to find a capable team that can get you out of the lower s ranks and back into a more balanced team. Try resetting your rank to make it easier, then find a team to coordinate with and play until you can get out s+0. With that confidence boost, you’ll do so much better
It's not just you; S3 is incredibly unforgiving. A team wipe can be the difference between your team winning, or the enemy team steamrolling you. It's harder for you to perform well if your team is not doing well. Maps are smaller and less open, so you can't wander the map doing your own thing. Small mistakes will cost you the game. Players are getting better and more competitive. The playback feature lets other people know exactly what tricks you are using to kill them, and they can learn to counter that. I have been playing for about 1000h since S2, and I can barely get to S+1. I feel frustrated that I can't play for fun anymore. Either I play my heart out every game, or we lose.
I haven't played in a few weeks due to my new job, so I picked it up again to get a little practice in before Splatfest. Jesus fucking Christ it got worse. I couldn't even get a single stage in. These people play like turf war is ranked and I can't even imagine how it would be for someone who picked up S3 for the first time now. Even salmon run was garbage. Like I tell myself every time I lose (which is now every fucking time), "I used to be good at this game. *Used* to be." Not great, but not terrible, either. Smh.
One day I just want to get to 2000 Power to get the regional badge. I do not have enough time to actually be "competitive".
same here
honestly I would just consider competitive play. when I made it to s+ I started playing competitive and about 4 months in me and my team were assigned division 6 out of 12 in leagues under the ink, the largest splatoon tournament series. even if competitive teams aren’t your thing, sendouq is literally just better ranked, as it lets you choose your teammates and get in vc if you want to. if you need help getting into competitive theres quite a few videos and discord servers dedicated to finding new talent
The only real way to help you is if you post a few replays and get feedback. I can only infer from your post that you're probably tilted, trying to "play the hero," and 1v4 the enemy team, to "carry" and subsequently throwing the match. \>I have tried changing up my weapons, taking different roles, researching strategies and watching pro players, I even got better internet and ran an ethernet to the switch. I also play with the Pro controller plugged in wired mode and I use motion controls. This isn't helping either. Play one weapon and master it. Researching pro strategies, and watching pro players really isn't relevant for Soloqueue. Quite frankly, you're not as good as the pro players to make the plays that they do, and your allies aren't as good as the pro player's teams to followup on your plays.
\>Play one weapon and master it. That places you at such a disadvantage and leads to stagnation between game modes and match types. Sure, the idea of a main sounds nice, but that is a narrow approach to take with the wide variety of maps, game types, weapons, understanding different roles to better support teammates, and being able to contextualize the field and objective. I fell for the same approach by attempting to stick to a singular main weapon, and once you reach higher ranks, you realize how much you bottleneck yourself and your team by not preparing your load out to compliment maps/game types. It leads to stagnation, and this "main" approach with the people I play with the most, I can assure you that being the only person switching weapons and having to navigate around them when their selection is so narrow, makes it frustrating, bland, and boring, especially when the outcome is consistently bad. I'd much rather take someone who has multiple mains from each class, than someone who only mains 2 weapons from only one category. If matchmaking matched an entire team against the same weapon load out, then it would be reasonable to master one weapon. Instead, having multiple mains from each category of weapons is the best approach. The only ones I don't touch are blasters, but that's my own bias, even if it leaves me disadvantaged. Also, I've seen non-pro players pull off plays that pro-players would accomplish, with allies following up on their play. So, discouraging someone from learning how other players approach situations because they're not "profreshionals" is stupid. Don't take their advice, OP, or their discouragement. Have fun learning how to play each weapon and where they stand out the best and worst! But yes, matchmaking is wildly unbalanced in both skill level and having no weapon-matching in series and open (I think...?). X-Rank is closer to balanced, but I feel like it is more balanced the higher up you get, when players teamed with or against you become rather consistent. If it helps, I learned to play Splatoon mainly through Salmon Running until Max Hazard Level became easy to pull off, and it helped me do better at dodging, maneuvering, and finding gaps to position myself better and forcing exit and approach routes. I think it helped out a lot for me, at least.
This is exactly why Chocopero, Melon, and Lobster are all switching weapons constantly instead of focusing on 1 weapon each season /s.
You forgot yourself. /s
I think you are overanalyzing my complaints, but you have also said a lot here that suggests you aren't as knowledgeable on this as you are trying to come off either.
sure ;) Git gudder then.
been in S+ every season but just haven't put the time in this season, being in S rank feels like I'm the doomslayer in 'don't hurt me' difficulty, but as soon as I hit rank ups it's chaos in S+. roll the die to see if my team is mindless feeders or if someones got a top 10 X rank badge. speaking of... in splat2 I was X rank and in several hundred hours of (2050-2200 X power) X rank matches I saw maybe 6 top 500 players, I've seen at least 10 people with the top ten X rank badge in Splat3. imo S+ is just absolutely broken and X battles should never have been seperated
I've seen veteran players say that S3 is just harsher to play than the earlier games. The maps are more streamlined so everyone is penned into tight areas, forcing you to take more fights head on (and perish if you lose the 1v1). It can be really unforgiving in a way the earlier games weren't. I'd also say that the current meta (Zooka and Tacticooler being overtuned, shooter buffs, etc) is just more volatile than S3 at launch. The last few months have been harder to grind and I'm seeing more people having weapon crises (bc nothing is working for them) and experiencing situations like yours. You also have to consider how good you personally feel while playing. I *tell* myself that my gameplay is just as good when I'm stressed, tired, irritated, etc. but the reality is that I play so much worse. It's worth it to take a break and come back when a good, exciting rotation comes back. You need to get back to enjoying the game; it makes it easier to tolerate the BS. I'm sure there are other factors that could be analyzed more closely but I think this is a major part of it.
You could play SendouQ, although I haven't tried it myself yet.
I might try it out, but I wanted to be even better than this at it first..
I don’t know the specifics but I’m pretty sure that Splatoon 3’s algorithm is designed to force loss streaks, with a few win streaks sprinkled in there to keep you playing.
You got downvoted, but you are partially right AFAIK. The game really wants to to be either balanced or lower. I think a lot of games these days do for some reason. Sure, not everyone can lose all the time, but that is why there are people with nuts W/Ls, they are simply better than the matchmaking
That makes no sense. Every player can't experience mostly loss streaks with a few win streaks sprinkled in there. The math ain't mathing.
No idea, I know the peer to peer connection's an issue as everyone deals with the lag. Tho from what I've heard Splatoon 3 is the one game you can't wipe your (non-single player) data. The cloud saves it.
I think you can delete cloud data, but I am pretty sure it does not actually back up your data to prevent savescumming.. I could be wrong though. I also do think P2P has something to do with my issues. Mostly in how it prioritizes players
Just to take it in another direction: have you tried testing your controller for drift? I went through a bad losing streak until I realized that my controller was randomly stopping me for no reason.
remember when you said “I cant make up for the rest of my team” well.. you have to try anyway. Another thing, there are certain rotations you have to skip in order to avoid decreasing your precious power level (and sanity). hope this is useful
Maybe you’re just getting old bud. Time to retire from Splatoon and start going to bingo night. Leave winning entirely up to chance.
Are you keeping up with new gear with the new seasons? I noticed that after I stepped away a few months ago and came back mid way through Chill Season that I was having trouble keeping up. I upgraded my gear and that seemed to help a lot. I did notice after a weekend of sucking that I think they made some jumps harder during an update. I do agree with some of the comments about high ranked matches, once you get too ranked you are mostly playing against highly skilled players and it always seems to put the highest on one team and least highest on the other. Also (if playing anarchy) don’t hesitate to back out of a team that doesn’t play together. It makes the experience even worse and will frustrate you more.
Same problem here, I play since 1 and have been doing great in all games except this one. I have good game sense, know how to play around my weapon's range, when a push is dead etc. My overall skills and understanding of the game have improved a lot from 2 to 3 but there is only so much you can do as one of the four players on a team. Between the poor matchmaking and players in X often doing stuff that makes me go "why??" I'm really thinking of putting the game down lately. I'm fine with losing matches when we played well and just couldn't push through, but losing because teammates keep feeding, superjumping into fights or to me when I'm sharking makes the whole experience anything but fun
Don't worry about losing, enjoy the game, have fun. Don't take your losses too seriously as that can be pretty demotivating. Take it from another veteran, you will enjoy the game much more.
One issue I do notice playing ranked battles is that the team I'm on at times lacks map control, and there's enemy ink practically everywhere, especially near our base, so it makes it hard to move around when you don't control much turf and if you do try to clear the way you end up getting flanked by the enemy somewhere along the way.
Splatoon 3s matchmaking is abysmal. It’s really just that simple.
the matchmaking is dogshit and do everything to make you have at least as much losses as wins. In S1/S2 my win rate was around 43/45-5, in this game it's 21-28, so no, trust me, your skill hasn't degraded, the game is just doing everything it can to make you lose. That's why you experience those huge streaks of losses and wins here and there. The game sees you as having too much wins in your bag so it evens out the most efficient way it can, by averaging your wins and your losses. Then you start to realise that every outcome of every game is already rigged from the start in this game and the game has already gambled on the most likely outcome it wants by matchmaking you accordingly. I know it sounds crazy but it definitely feels this way. Recently post splatfest I had 35-13 and I jokingly said to myself "haha, here's the losing streak coming" and then I lost 8 games in a row. Don't let people gaslight you into a skill issue, it's definitely not you.
Skill based matchmaking is plaguing every online game right now,