#and the octobrush is a skill issue from me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

scicraft · 3 years

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fuck all these posts analyzing vintage against emperor. let’s talk about headphones

just what it says on the tin. strap in lads im insane

headphones i think is one of the most underrated members of team idiot-blueper which honestly hurts my heart because she’s had the most heartful moments out of any of them (shakes fist at sky where is my bobble lore) but i digress

she’s decently precocious but not pragmatically-anxious driven like how specs is, often coming across as the most thoughtful of idiot-blueper. on a scale of careless-careful i’d place it as

bobble: not that she’s inconsiderate in any capacity, but she’s very self driven and her teamwork seems more incidental over being actively aware of her team. i want to say it’s intuitive but most of her team considers her hard to follow, so i really think she’s just the accidentally g-d tier person you find solo queueing but she’s actively on a team

goggles: he only BARELY outclasses bobble. i love him but this boy doesn’t think often. it’s really unfortunate. he does care about other people’s feelings and is very driven to help people to have fun but he has absolutely 0 emotional awareness and can’t read the room for shit. while yes this helps him and his attitude almost always works in his favor, him underestimating things can put him directly in hot water and even at odds with other teammates (such as specs). he also has a habit of not listening to his teammates directions in matches (ie when he popped up on gloves causing gloves to slide all his hair off) and listen i GET its a gag but emotionally im malding @ how he acts.

emp: i tend not to think of emperor in terms of idiot-blueper if i can help it ngl. sorry to the emperor fans out there i literally like him bc i enjoy injecting family issues into this man. anyways. when he’s introduced he’s probably the coldest and most careless of any squid, but by the time he joins blueper he’s definitely loosened up and redirected his stupid royalty complex into thinking of ways to cover his team’s weaknesses. good for him i guess? he’s still got the superiority thing going on which makes me think that him wanting to cover idiot-blueper’s weaknesses is at least partially fueled by the belief he has that hes better than everyone else, which is like, technically worse than goggles, but unlike goggles, he does actually listen to them

specs: specs is really hard to nail, obviously he’s a worrywart and the first person to point out when things are gonna go wrong, but i really think it’s less about “what’s realistic for our team to accomplish” and more “what’s the least scary thing to work through”. he does get better about this (see: helping bobble learn octobrush for the rainmaker match) but he’s definitely someone who’s avoidant of conflict. nothing a little confidence boost (or aggression boost) from goggles cant fix

headphones: THE crown careful girl. i think about her often. the reason i described the other members of idiot-blueper was to really give a good enough contrast to her own character, because a lot of coroika IS about interpersonal relationships and how these kids interact/bounce off each other. anyways. she very deeply cares about her team and goes out of her way to improve her skills so she can help them out with winning more matches (vol 1 ch 1; headphones is the only member of team idiot who’s not C rank, showing that she puts in extra time to practice without the rest of team idiot). while she worries with specs in moments where team idiot goes up against tough opponents, she’s also usually the first to hop on and agree with goggles saying theyll win if they have fun. she also straight up tells n-pacer during the finalist match against team emperor “it’s not bad to look after your teammates” which shows her extremely loyalty to team idiot & that she has a good handle on where everyone is + knowing her range to help them with whatever skirmish they might be in

honestly i don’t want this post to just be me praising headphones with a chapter to chapter breakdown of her achievements and how it contributes to her character (although i would be super happy to do that) i really want to draw attention to this:

“Thinking of your teammates is your style.”

this bonus comic (vol 6 ch 23.5) is a love letter to me, your local headphones appreciator, with skull giving some really good advice and being way better about summing up headphones’ motives than i did in this post

the fact that phones was willing to change up her playstyle to get an edge for idiot team really shows how honestly and deeply she cares... cries... anyways im running out of thoughts. stan headphones. thats all. bye

#coroika #splatoon #splatoon coroika #headphones coroika #long post #hey mamas (slams you all w this)#queenie decrees #im off da shits <3

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mambo-rewritten · 5 years

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A Girl by Many Names: Chapter 5

“It’s a damn good thing they’re letting us work together on these tests,” Six sighed, his tentacle curling on his forehead. “I can’t imagine completing all of these by myself. I think C.Q. said there were, like, eighty tests in total? And I don’t really see myself completing that many on my own.” The metro’s doors slid open, and the two subjects made their way inside and sat in their respective seats on the bench in the back of the train car.

“We should plan out where we’re gonna go next,” Five murmured, booting up her map of the metro’s railways as the train lurched forwards. “From the looks of it, we’ve unlocked lines B, C, and D, and have two items that we can retrieve on lines B and C, but C's item is farther away, meaning more tests. Unless we can unlock lines that will allow us to take shortcuts to get to the items easier, we’ve still got a ways to go.”

Six extended his arm to point at where lines D and C almost met. “Look here. There’s a line connecting these two. If we can get to the junction station and unlock this line, it should make getting C’s item easier.” He frowned, his lower lip getting caught between his teeth as he thought. “Five, we’re idiots.”

“Hey! Don’t lump me in with you!”

“No, look.” His hand traced over line C to where it connected with line D, then towards the right. “There’s a junction station two stops down. That should be where we head next. If my guess is right, the rail will connect to the ends of lines C and D over… here, which is where we were trying to go in the first place. We completely overlooked this station.”

“...Oh. I guess we are idiots, huh?” Five giggled, moving the cursor over to select the stop just before the junction station test, but hesitated. “Hey, Six? Doesn’t this all feel… I dunno, weird?”

He looked over at her, his eyes full of concern and confusion. “What do you mean?”

“It’s just… we wake up here with no memories, no idea of who we are, and suddenly they’re forcing us to take a variety of tests with the only goal being to survive and get to the goals they set up for us. Not to mention the octarians that are in there…” She trailed off, looking hard at the remote. “They used to be like us. They had lives before they came down here. Then something happened and… now they’re like that. Living, un-alive robots. And we just… kill them. Over and over again. Isn’t it weird?”

Six looked down as he mulled over Five’s words. “Yeah… when you spell it out like that… yeah, it is pretty weird. But… C.Q. wouldn’t actively hurt someone… would he? He’s a fucking sea slug!”

Five shook her head. “It wouldn’t be C.Q.. He’s just the conductor of the train. Someone else is pulling the strings, telling him what to do.”

“That would make sense. But shutting this place down isn’t really our primary objective, is it? We just wanna get our memories back and get out of here, right?” Six stood up, beginning to pace. “But doing that feels wrong! We can’t just leave them down here!”

“We have no other choice, Six! If we don’t get out of here, we’re gonna end up like them! Is that what you want to do with the rest of your life? Become someone’s puppet?! Because I sure as hell don’t wanna go back to that.” Five suddenly stopped, her turquoise eyes going wide. “Oh my cod, Six. I remembered something, just now. I was someone’s puppet before I fell.”

“Weren’t we all, technically? I mean, we all served under Octavio. We didn’t really have much of a choice, what with the hypnoshades and everything.”

Five shook her head. “No, I wasn’t ever required to, for some reason. A-anyways, we’re getting sidetracked. We need to focus on getting to the junction station so we can get the item and knock out one of the objectives. I can take on Targetbuster if you wanna do Girl Power and unlock the next rail line.”

“You sure? Normally you’re the one to take on combat-centric tests,” Six crossed his arms. “I’m not skilled like you are, especially with elites.”

She pursed her lips in a pout and crossed her arms. “You did the last test. It’s only fair I do the next one and we trade off. You know, like we compromised? Plus, I’m a hell of a lot faster than you are.”

Six sighed and hung his head in defeat. “You’re right… alright, fine.”

---

Five stepped out of the train and over to the weapon’s display. Two large brushes were presented on the wall, as well as a lightweight roller, all paired with curling bombs. Six walked up next to her, his brows knitted together as he helped her weigh her options.

“The Carbon roller would give us the most points, but the Octobrush is recommended and yields the least, but the Inkbrush is faster when you run with it. And no matter which main weapon you choose, you’re gonna get curling bombs as your sub,” he contemplated, chewing on his lower lip in thought. A habit from his previous life that carried over, Five guessed.

“So, which one should I go with?” She prompted, crossing her arms.

“I’d go with the Octobrush to be on the safe side. Plus, we’re doing pretty well on points, so the extra four hundred from the Carbon isn’t really going to make much of a difference on our wallet.” Six lifted the larger, flat brush off of its pedestal and handed it over to Five, along with the bomb pack. “I’ll be waiting for you and watching from the turnstyle. Please be careful.”

Five snickered and rolled her eyes. “You’re such a worrywart. I’ll be fine and back before you know it.” She took the point card from his hand and gave him a smile as she swiped it on the turnstyle. “See you on the flipside.”

She sprinted out of the station platform, making a beeline for the dash track that lay at the very end of the entrance floor, and landed gracefully in front of a series of neon yellow and orange crates and between a set of nasty-looking Octowashers. Wasting no time, Five whipped out the brush and sprinted, weaving between the obstacles and taking out the initial twelve with speed unrivaled.

The next six were a piece of cake, since they were simply stacked on one another. Riding the rail and taking out the next seven was easy enough, as well as the final nine on the ending platform. Five grit her teeth and swung the brush down with full force on the giant orange box, smashing it and sending it splintering across the platform. She sighed and watched the launchpad form at the very edge of the space, smirking to herself.

---

Six was absolutely speechless, only able to gape at Five as she landed from her jump back to the station platform. “What was that?”

“What was what? How did I do?” Five asked, her voice tinged with worry as she placed her loaned weapon back on its pedestal on the wall. “I passed, didn’t I?”

“I-I mean, yeah, but… what the hell? You completed the test in half of the allotted time. I’m pretty sure that’s not how that’s supposed to work.”

Five offered him a shrug. “I’m sorry? I told you I was fast. It just means we can keep going faster than we anticipated. I don’t see the issue.” She lead him back into the train, grabbing her black cloak and wrapping it around her shoulders.

Six didn’t offer a response, his attention now turned elsewhere. “Uh, Five? We have a new passenger.”

“Hm?” She lifted her head and froze. A tall inkling man in a suit was sitting toward the front of the train car, his legs crossed casually as he examined something in his hands. “Hey, that’s mine! I mean, it’s not, but I found it!” She barked, causing him to lift his gaze from the octopus dagger and meet her eyes. Her blood instantly froze in her veins, and she found herself unable to move.

His eyes were exactly like the octarians’ in the testing chambers: bright, glowing teal irises with black sclera surrounding them.

“Oh, my apologies, 10,005. I just found it intriguing, is all. Here,” he held out the handle towards her, a small smile playing on his lips. “I do, however, need to speak with you alone, my dear. It seems there has been an issue regarding your tests that I need to take care of.”

“An issue? But C.Q. said Six and I could work together to pass?” She blurted out, pocketing the blade. “What’s the issue?”

The squid gave her a wry smile. “Not to worry, it has nothing to do with that. There is simply… how do I put this in a way that’s not alarming? There is simply a contaminant within your system that can prove fatal to the constructs within the testing facilities. We will have to decontaminate you in order for you to be able to continue with your assessments.”

Five paled slightly. “Contaminated? Like… I’m sick?”

“Not necessarily. The bacterium is not malicious to you, but to the constructs within each testing facility. The decontamination process won’t take too long, so we will be pulling you while 10,006 completes his next test.”

“Wait, hang on!” Six suddenly interjected, sending a glare towards the inkling. “You can’t just walk in here and tell us that she’s sick, then say you’re going to, I dunno, ‘cure’ her or whatever! We don’t even know who you are!”

“Six!” Five hissed.

The tall squid smiled, his eyes narrowing behind his round glasses. “Apologies for not introducing myself before. I am the CEO of Kamabo Corporation, Cecil Teufel. I monitor each subject’s succession rate in each facility and progress toward their goal to get to the promised land. I also handle a variety of things behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly for those who wish to make it to the promised land, and those who simply wish to ride my subway.”

Five turned to give Six a hard stare as she set her jaw and quirked a brow.

“I-I meant no disrespect, sir. I’m sorry for my behavior,” Six stammered, his face suddenly becoming very warm as he shifted his gaze to the floor. “Thank you for allowing us to have a chance to find out who we really are.”

Mr. Teufel uncrossed his legs and rose to his feet, turning his attention to the tiny conductor. “C.Q., can you direct us to Central Station? I have business with 10,005 there. After you drop the two of us off, take 10,006 to his next assessment. I will alert you when she is ready to resume her tasks.”

“Yes sir, Mr. Teufel. Now departing for Central Station.”

The CEO smirked and looked back at the two octolings, folding his hands in his lap as he sat back down on the bench. “I look forward to seeing how you two progress, as you’ve both done excellently so far. 10,005?”

She snapped her turquoise gaze up to match his own, fear etching her features ever so slightly. “Yes…?”

“I’m going to make you... marvelous.”

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#agbmn #agbmn fic #splatoon 2 #splatoon 2 fanfiction #original writing

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rhapsody-crossing · 5 years

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Memories of Oceanink Series (Season 3) - Part 9

14. Deferred Week 4 Match - vs VerniySefaro

VerniySefaro is a fellow Malaysia team that contained most of the former KnB members. It is co-led by both Kent and Benji, both being veterans of Oceanink Series, with a huge roster of strong players: BK, Naj, Justme, Riderman, (the more casual cast:) Eddy, Koyu, and APLeu.

After much digging, it was confirmed that Kent, BK, APLeu and Naj would be playing against us. There was also a brief question on whether we should postpone this match in hopes to get players other than Naj against us, but we all agreed to get it done ASAP so that we could rest before the cross-division play-offs.

Kent and BK playing were expected; they are like peas in the pod after all, can’t have one without the other especially when it came to Oceanink Series. It is highly like that BK will take up his NZap, and Kent would play something long range, a Jet Squelcher or Heavy Splatling maybe. It is also possible that BK would be carrying a Jet Squelcher and Kent his usual trusty Dual Squel, but considering that Naj is in the party and recent videos did not see BK using his Jet Squel, said option would be quite unlikely.

APLeu, on the other hand, there were short video clips of her leaning towards more on support/shooter weapons that her usual Carbon Roller. Considering that there are two very proficient slayers in the front lines, I doubt she would return to her roller as well.

Naj was the player we did not want to fight the most; VS may have a lot of skilled player, but Naj felt like the cream of the crop. He has the wiles in battle, so it’s a pain to fight him... but worse of all, he’s favoured by the Gods/Powers-Up-There.

How so?

Case One: In Ink Your Heart Out (Malaysia’s first tourney), Harapan had connection issues but managed to pulled through towards the finals. When we fought them, Leaf’s connection acted up. They also had a lot of good luck with maps until the end, and I would like to think that it was my incense stick to the Buddha that partially combated his luck.

Case Two: In Ready Set Ink! (Malaysia’s second tourney) finals, they were able to conserve their energy because uncleSotong members kept disconnecting. I’d like to think they lost because of my incense stick to Buddha and also Kuniki’s vegetarian deal with Guan Yin ma.

Case Three: Mini Tourney (Malaysia’s third tourney) was a disconnect hell that eventually wore my teammates that we lost on that one. That tourney was also me forgetting to lit an incense stick, ugh.

Case Four: Kensa Tourney (Malaysia’s fourth tourney), despite the incense stick I lit, still ended up as a dc on my end, especially when we were on match point during which I was turning the tables. Mrgrgrgrgr...

Case Five: With him participating that night’s match, Calamar happened to be free to record, prompting a huge morale boost on VerniySefaro’s end (as most of them are huge fans of Calamar).

I have met Naj in person at mini tourney, and he seemed like a righteous person. In fact, he’s also in a righteous job as a police man, seems loving to his wife and is seemingly a pious person considering his religion. So yes, Powers-Up-There definitely favours a good man.

So when Bibu had connection issues (Bibu never had connection issues!) and everyone (jokingly) blamed BK, I (secretly) blamed Naj.

Reflecting back on both Splat Zones, Goby Arena and Tower Control, Ancho-V Games, we both lost due to the gap of combat experience, formation and recovery. In fact, the latter map allowed Naj to spawn camp us. Frantic attempts on recovery made us jump into the battlefield one by one, only to be suffer in their readied ink. Aye, we lost.

Turf War, Skipper Pavilion seemed rather balanced due to its large map, but Bibu’s disconnect the second time forced us to continue the match with a lack of manpower. Needless to say, we lost.

Clam Blitz - Arowana Mall - The training with *cha team paid off. VS managed to broke our barrier once, but we managed to broke the barrier and took lead. There was a pretty long stalemate until Bibu dc’d at the last 30 seconds, prompting us to adopt a more defensive position and for our opponents to rush in. While we had the lead, the match entered into Overtime as opponents carried a power clam. Sot and Furi attempted to stop them but they were both freaked out (sot faced them on the narrow bridge), outnumbered (Furi tried stopping Kent and Naj on the front, got took down by BK at the back) and out-ranged (Inkbrush and Octobrush vs Dual Squelcher and Heavy Splatling), leading to their quick demise. Fortunately, narrow bridges are brilliant places for Hydra; I splatted the three attackers in quick succession and defended the lead, gaining our very first victory.

On Rainmaker - Shellendorf Institute, it was noted that the opponents carried weapons that are mid-range at best. They may have realized their mistake, especially when I was able to take control of the roof quite often (and regretted not taking being able to take clips of several nice rooftop splats). Fortunately for them, Bibu dc’d, and our request for sub allowed them to change weapons as per Oceanink rules.

Calling Leaf in is a double-edged sword. While it gave Furi the confidence that an old comrade and player on par of her skill was playing, Leafy was also out of practice and definitely out of sync with us. There were some lead struggles, but victory fell to VS in the end.

The short moment of battle before connection hiccup in the beginning of Splat Zones, New Albacore Hotel was enough to know that BK was out for my blood, hogging my usual perch spot on the left. I informed of others to clear the left pathway for me to perch. We took the zones quickly, and the left was oddly clear. The opponents carried no long range weapon, leading to a very easy control on the left entrance and the grate with my Hydra. The range allowed me to assist sot and Leaf, who are wreaking havoc in their base. Furi guarded the right with her splattershot pro, which outranged most of the weapon they carried. Naj attempted to baller through to the zone, however, the momentum of his leap across the water as a baller was affected by my Hydra volley... his descend into the water prompted a very satisfied chuckle from me. t!slots dominated this round.

Tower Control, Wahoo World led to a long tug of war. We had a good lead, with VS fought back led to an overtime (ooo deja vu). Furi was confident in stopping them as her special was ready, but we were definitely not ready for the onslaught of specials and harassment from Naj as he sharked at our base. All I could remember were a mess of ink storm, bubbles and stingray before VS took the lead overtime, winning the match.

The overall result was a 5 - 2 in VS’ favour.

The mood was, for the first time, quite heavy after the loss (though a few attempts in light-heart jabs were made). Perhaps it was the frustration in the gap of skills and experience, or the fact that we could do better, that our tempo was messed up by frequent disconnects.

Bibu felt guilty as her connection issues led to a match’s loss, but none really blamed her for it. Heck, I could empathize with that guilt as my connection issues had cost team matches in the past. It could not be helped. Luck was definitely not on our favour this time, a fact that was only confirmed by Calamar’s presence.

A more capable captain would be able to give a rousing speech of life’s philosophy and how everyone had done well, and perhaps ended said night with a good note; I wasn’t that capable, for my mind only replayed to the many shots that I missed, the incapability of handling Naj and BK’s pressure, the inability to guide them better in match... All I could articulate was asking for others to rest early, before departing to bed.

On a brighter note, our matches were all wrapped up, so that’s a huge burden off our backs. Bibu immediately went back farming, Furi went back to save Hyrule and I started my life as a Moonlighter. After two months of committing to competitive battling, that’s the end to the Oceanink Series and all of us deserved a break!

...

Except, no, that wasn’t the end, because there was still Cross-Division Playoffs, dang.

Read Part 10 HERE

#splatoon 2 #oceanink

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rhapsody-crossing · 5 years

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Memories of Oceanink Series (Season 3) - Part 1

Wanna to eternalize some good Splatoon 2 memories here:

0. Characters

- Main Team

Furidm - Slayer of t!slots. Despite her new job, she is able to play Splatoon 2 on-and-off. She still carries her brand of fierceness in her splats, and remains the experienced, strongest front-liner. Could flex between short range and mid range; mains Octobrush but also plays NZap and Clash Blaster, also picks up Kensa Splattershot Pro along the way.

sotsot - Everyman of t!slots. His willingness to learn and adapt to the team is worth the respect. Also helps manage scrims with XGB. Mains Octobrush, but picks up Splattershot and Tri Slosher along the journey.

Bibu - Mid-liner of t!slots. A calm surface with a hidden ferocious depth, she will punish anyone with her Kensa Sloshing Machine. Is also an active farmer in Stardew Valley.

Lea - t!slots emergency sub. A retired skilled player who now uses Bloblobber and Dualies Squelcher. Prefers to save the world with a keyblade, traveling twisty caverns as a Hollow Knight and raises units in Dragalia Lost.

And then, there’s me. I am the backliner and acting captain of t!slots. I main Custom Hydra, and is also in charge of managing scrims and scheduling matches. Mother Hen of the group.

- Supporting

DonkeyBen - The original captain of t!slots. The calling of other world for a hero is too enticing, but personal issues have kept him from playing. Mains Dynamo Roller.

arlang - an eager participant of t!slots, but life commitments prevented her from playing too often. She fills in for scrims and participate in league sometimes.

Kuniki - Part of t!slots, but main allegiance with Nameless. Nevertheless, he watches over t!slots like a good papa and trained with us often. Also t!slots artist.

BK - A member of VerniySefaro who has a disregard for team allegiances and helped out a lot. A good comrade of t!slots.

0. Brief History

It all started when two Malaysia teams joined an online Splatoon 2 tournament held for SEAs, only to had their butts kicked badly.

After a bout of pity party, both teams were determined to grow stronger for the sake of Malaysia and registered for Oceanink Series that had just recently started. They formed a team named Knife and Banana. However, despite being a team of ten, life commitments has reduced active participants to five, but it was okay. The team managed quite decently.

Time flew, by the time season 2 rolled around, Splatoon Malaysia Community itself has organised two Splatoon 2 tournaments (in which my experience for both tourneys can be found here and here). As such, new Knife and Banana had a change of members that are from different Malaysia teams. Nevertheless, said team made itself well-known for putting up a tough fight, but they never really got to top 3.

When Season 3 came, Knife and Banana was fractured into different teams. A majority of members formed a new team named VerniySefaro. Two ex-members decided to participate as their local team XGB. One ex-member became part of the Nameless family. One ex-member entered with t!slots.

This story focuses on that ex-member that participated with t!slots.

1. How I got roped into This

Approximately two months ago, Kuniki came to me with the “bright idea” of merging or setting an alliance with DoTS, a team he helped nurtured and babied.

I call this “bright idea” because Kuniki’s part of Nameless, and while his heart is often always from the right side (by wanting us to be active and happy, and to celebrate the community he’s building), he pretty much wants the remaining active Tofu members, Furi and I, to babysitguide his childrenfriends when he couldn’t.

Admittedly, I was at a limbo on my Splatoon 2 life, on the verge of quitting competitive to focus towards other area of life (more specifically reading and writing). Few personal issues cropped up, which led me to being in a bad head-space of not being ready to welcome new people into my life. Kuniki’s intrusion wasn’t welcome, but it was something I knew I needed... But I still wasn’t ready, so I let others decide what they want. The alliance will be named t!slots? Sure. The team captain for this alliance will be Bibu? Okay. We’re participating Oceanink series season 3? Right. Wednesday and Friday will be training day? Cool.

I really wasn’t invested, because I felt my role was more of a “Just In Case”, a sub. DoTS is a young team filled with passionate and close-knitted members: Captain DonkeyBen, arlang, sotsot and Bibu. They are raised by several other veterans (like Kuniki, BK, members from XGB...), so what need do they have for two other “vets” who are kinda taking a break? I’d learned from KnB Oceanink season 2 that it’s kinda difficult for different teams to get together due to team pride. So it’s best that Tofu should just intervene minimally, DoTS will get by Oceanink season 3 just fine.

As season 3 date loomed, Kuniki asked me to watch over t!slots again; DonkeyBen was losing interest in Splatoon 2 due to other commitments, and arlang would not be able play often due to her work exchange in Taiwan. In short, Furi and I will have to participate as active members. I thought he was joking, like maybe it was just his way of babying the team, but when Oceanink Seeding came, the deterioration of DBen’s interest in Splatoon 2 can be felt via voice chat.

Meanwhile, arlang shared her adventures in Taiwan and was both excited for Oceanink but apologetic because of the lack of time to join. Sotsot and Bibu on the other hand were pumped for Oceanink; the former wanted to know everything about it, and the latter focused on ranking to brush up her skills for upcoming matches.

My elder brother once told me that he’d preferred to work with younger, passionate people of his working field for their enthusiasm and energy; looking at DoTS, I could relate to his words.

Which is why I decided to support them a little.

2. Bonding with DoTS

There were plenty of opportunity to bond with DoTS:

a) ComicFiesta was the first time Furi and I got acquaint with majority of DoTS members (DBen missing) with Kuniki’s assistance.

b) Small Christmas Gathering, when DBen came back from his overseas studies. With the help of BK (who happened to visit KL for work), Furi and I managed to get acquainted.

c) Post-Penang Trip, when I had a quick lunch with DBen and Sot before DBen travels back to Johor via bus.

d) Ma La Food, in which Furi, sot, arlang, and I tried to satisfy Kuniki’s cravings for Ma La.

e) Splatoon Community Gathering, in which DoTS, Tofu and BK had hotpot for dinner after the gathering.

Each time, it gets easier to be comfortable in their presence.

KnB in Oceanink season 2 has haunted me in some ways, for all I remembered was having to maintain peace between teams; knowing that Furi and I would be working with sot and Bibu, I was determine to make it work by getting to know them and removing any boundaries between teams. It helped that BK and Kuniki were here to facilitate things.

Soon, the brackets were released and week 1 of Oceanink descended upon us.

See Part 2 HERE.

#splatoon 2 #oceanink

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rhapsody-crossing · 6 years

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S2: IYHO Tournament - A Reflection [Part 3]

PART 1 is here. PART 2 is here. This written series now has a tag #iyho series

7) Unexpected Champion of the Loser Bracket

If Ink Your Heart Out event is a anime, I would dedicate an episode or two to SST (Sotong Serba Tahu). Their captain, Riderman, used to be an active player but stopped due to university and life. Dinie is one of the rare badass female gamer who shows her skills with action instead of bragging. Jazmi was a skilled A ranker brush user (probably an S now). Three of them, along with a few others from the OC, were part of MAWS-- a team created for a SEA Tournament held on April. Malaysia did not do well on that tournament, but their bonds held strong and true. As such, Riderman’s return is equivalent of seeing a retired yet respectable general picking up his blade again and called his companions to arms for this upcoming war. They took in a newbie name Heraan as their fourth member.

SST lost to littleSOTONGS in the winners’ bracket, most likely due to the lack of coverage or connection issues. They tore through the loser bracket by defeating EPDS and INKvaders with a brilliant display of skill and team synergy that was almost touching to watch. It was unfortunate that they encountered an obstacle in the form of member disconnection, which led them to forego the match against Avengers...

On the other hand, Harapan’s experience was the opposite of SST. They encountered disconnect issues when battling Avengers in the normal bracket, which landed them on the loser’s bracket. Nevertheless, they powered through their opponents, beating Team 7, Gugu Team, Avengers and littleSOTONGS with a clean 2-0. It is also well noted that the teams they defeated contain at least one OC member, so my OC group chat was filled with awe and surprise of their skills and victory.

From surface, Harapan seemed ordinary: only their captain najmuddin and Afif were level 50s. syamin is in his late level 20s but is amazingly good at slaying. Rais was the last and latest addition, and he’s only ONE week into the game. We would later learn that captain najmuddin is actually part of the police force in real life. What happens when a police officer coins strategies in Splatoon 2? Apparently, it results lots of victory in a form of team synergy.

Harapan was like the black horse, the unexpected final boss. True to their namesake, waiting for them to start was akin to waiting for Malaysia’s GE14 votes to be tallied (their matches were delayed for an hour due to prayers, and was again further delayed due to connection issues). And yet, true to their namesake, they defeated almost everyone in the loser brackets much to everyone’s surprise.

If Avengers had won, we would expect a tough fight with some confidence that we could win. But Harapan threw every prediction out of the window, so the only way to find out who won was through the battle itself.

8) Finals - First Set

When the time came, Low was suffering from disconnect issues. As such, slap, louhai, Furi and I proceeded ahead.

It was terrible. I felt as if I was locked by their range. They were never alone, and the missiles kept coming. The whole match resulted in our first tournament loss:

Our team went on a state of panic. Everyone demanded for Low to come, poor connection be damned. Furi and Low were the pillars of slaying, so if both of them were on, everything should be okay, right?

What resulted was a close match but a loss:

Harapan won.

9) Finals - Second Set

What almost everyone had forgotten is that this tournament runs on Double Elimination format, meaning everyone gets a second chance, also meaning Tofu team had one more attempt. NCY and I had to stop everyone from dispersing in order to proceed to the Final match.

However, Tofu took a hit in the morale: to louhai, Furi and Low were invincible, and he felt like the weakest link. He wanted to be subbed out so that slap could play and turf, but the four of us rejected that idiotic and paranoid notion (”because bby”, I wanted to tell him, “one does not turf with Dynamo”). For the past week, we have seen louhai worked hard, and we trusted louhai with our backs. If we were to compare to ink brush’s sneakiness and Dynamo’s AoE, we needed the former more. Even slap could see that.

(At that moment, I took an internal hit in my weapon choice and skills as well. I chose NZap to better support my teammates in turfing as well as to give louhai and slap the freedom (hah, pun unintended) and pressure to kill, but this comes with an exchange on my ability to aim and kill more efficiently. If I had stuck Tri-Slosher, would things have changed? If I had more practice on aiming, would we not have suffered those loss? If I had took ranked more seriously, could we have won...?

Unbeknownst to my teammates, I was really conflicted, but louhai was freaking out, and that itself gave me the strength to be strong.)

Except, we were unfortunate to have gotten Walleye Warehouse as our next map. Walleye Warehouse is a narrow place with tons of alleys and tight spots, and very little place to run. In short, it was a terrific place for Tenta Missiles and long range users. I tried to sneak, but my poor judgment and aim got myself killed. louhai managed to snuck past last minute, but it was too late:

The second match would be the decider. If Harapan won, they would be champion. If Tofu won, then we may have chance to win the overall tournament.

“S’ok let’s do our best.” was what I imparted.

As if they took it literally, Low changed back to his main weapon Dapple Dualies Nouveau. Furi and louhai returned to their Octobrush Noveau and Inkbrush Nouveau roots respectively. If Nouveau is a real brand, they ought to sponsor us as their spokesperson.

Moray Tower is one of the oldest maps, appearing in both Splatoon 1 and 2. It is an interesting map with two tall buildings with narrow paths and a rather tight middle. It is by no means as constricted as Walleye Warehouse, but it allows for a lot of ambushes and backdoor attacks, and with harder-to-aim Tentas.

In a sense, the map was advantageous to us: Low charged forward as if he owned the territory, louhai followed behind and did what he does best-- sneaking and ambushing unsuspecting peeps, Furi was a mixture of defensive and aggressive play (while assisting me with Tenta), and I did what I usually do best a.k.a support (except with much more confidence as Moray Tower is a familiar territory). It also helped that one of my favourite songs, Riptide Rupture was playing, so I was especially pumped.

The middle was controlled well, with Low and louhai invading their tower and slaying most them. Harapan was thrown into a disarray as they were not able to charge their specials fast enough. All in all, we secured a victory in this one:

At long last, the final match. If everyone was sleepy beforehand, they were definitely awake after this match. Whoever wins this would be crowned champion.

When Manta Maria was chosen, I was relief. The ship is spacious with plenty of place to climb. It will be hard to aim Tenta Missles in this one, but it will also be easier to charge them. it also allows a few opportunities for backdoor attacks, which Low and louhai could use.

With well wishes from the OC, and an encouragement threw to the team... we proceeded towards the final battle.

Unlike other teams, Tofu Team did not do voice chat during matches. This was due to a majority of us using hotspots, and we wanted the connection to be fully utilised in our matches.

And yet, during the penultimate and final battle, it was as if there was an unspoken agreement between us. That Low and louhai would charge forward, that Furi would maintain a defensive position in the middle, that I would be entrusted in the turfing of our base.

The final battle that felt as if all gears have connected, a continuous dance between us where everyone watched each other’s back. It was our unspoken synergy against their trained synergy.

We pincered our enemies and got pincered in return. I aimed my Tentas at them, and was aimed in returned. We killed our teammates’ slayer and got slain in return; an endless cycle of reacting, splatting and turfing...

Three minutes flew, we got our results:

West Mountain Tofu is the champion of Ink Your Heart Out Tournament!

P.S. Full recording of the both Final Sets can be seen here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/268577433

9) Overall Results

10) Aftermath

I woke up the next day with a huge migraine from the lack of sleep. I was also greeted by tons of positivity and congratulatory messages by others.

Yes, Tofu team received much congratulations, mostly thanks to the goodwill that louhai garnered with the community as well as my subtle connection with the OC.

Speaking of louhai, he made a HUGE heartfelt thank you Facebook post to the OCs and quickly befriended every other players on Switch. This man has continued to form connections and hone his skills in hopes to become a role model for the players of his state. He has big dreams for Johor community, so I doubt he would stay as a Tofu... Or perhaps he would make a Tofu Team version 2? Regardless of his choice, I wish him best of luck, as it may be a little hard to get us “past champions” together.

For one, slap is not a dedicated player. He has moved on to Detroit: Become Human as soon as the tournament ended.

Secondly, it would be difficult for Low to join due to some complications.

With Low gone, and the fact that the OC actually needed more assistance, I would like to focus more on assisting in the development of Splatoon 2 Community and its events.

On the other hand, Furi was in for a long haul. louhai’s heartfelt post made her admitted that she had been a solo bird in Splatoon 2, that she was so close to quitting yet decided to give the tournament a try. She was tremendously glad to have found us, and we were tremendously glad to have adopted her. It was without a doubt that Tofu team was happy to have her, that I was happy to have gained a friend in her! The fact that her workplace is 10 minutes away from my house means meeting up with her is relatively easy, heck, we actually met up for dinner that Sunday evening to celebrate our victory.

The group chat for Western Mountain Tofu remains for a more Spla2n-centric discussion, group-play invitations and Salmon Run hostings.

On a final note, I made a plea on the rewards towards the OC-- as all five of us had done battle, everyone in the team deserved a prize, so could the OC kindly request an additional eshop card from the sponsor...?

The request was approved by the sponsors, and our Splatoon 2 life continued oh-so-peacefully.

END

#splatoon 2 #iyho series

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