Splatfest

"Pick a side and battle it out in these special Turf War events. Find out about the latest Splatfests in Inkopolis Plaza, and be sure to pledge allegiance to your favorite side in the week leading up! Then help your side win by competing in Turf War battles!"

- Splatoon's official website

Splatfest, known as Festival or Fes in Japan, is a special event in Splatoon and Splatoon 2 in which Inklings choose between two teams, such as Cats or Dogs, and compete in Turf Wars for Super Sea Snails.

Splatoon
In Splatoon, Splatfest was a recurring event hosted by the Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie. During this event, Inklings were able to choose between two teams and participate in battles against each other. Inklings were limited to two colors during the Splatfest, reflecting which side they were on. The clothing section of the equip screen also became locked and all players were forced to wear the Splatfest Tee, which changed in color and design based on an Inkling's chosen team, though they could still change hats, shoes, and weapons. Inkopolis Plaza and all the stages were decorated with a flood of Miiverse posts from the Splatfest/Festival tag on the Splatoon community, some of which took the form of neon signs, banners, and even fireworks. Nighttime also descended over Inkopolis and all Turf War stages. Fireworks went off periodically in the plaza, and specks of light resembling fireflies or fire embers could be seen rising into the sky. Both Callie and Marie danced throughout the entire duration of this event, singing and dancing to [[Media:Splatfest Plaza.ogg|Splatfest - City of Color]]. For the most part, each Splatfest lasted 24 hours, during which time the region involved was isolated and Splatfest players would only face off against players from their own region. Meanwhile, all other regions continued to play amongst each other. A few choice Splatfests deviated from these rules. Super Sea Snails were awarded to participating players upon Splatfest's conclusion.

Splatoon 2
Splatfests return in Splatoon 2, now hosted by Off the Hook's members, Pearl and Marina. Besides this, the structure is largely the same. Although Miiverse is not compatible with the Nintendo Switch, Splatoon 2 ' s exclusive drawing feature allows for players to submit doodles that appear in-game as neon signs, banners, fireworks, or graffiti, as well as uploading doodles to social media accounts. Inkopolis Square is decorated similarly to Inkopolis Plaza in the first games and all areas once again become locked in nighttime as Pearl and Marina perform in Inkopolis Square.

Preparation
Before a Splatfest begins, Inkopolis Plaza and Inkopolis Square experience a variety of visual upgrades to prepare for the event. One week before a Splatfest in Splatoon, a voting booth appears next to the Miiverse Mailbox and the event's theme is announced by Callie and Marie during their Inkopolis News segment. Pearl and Marina similarly announce the event's theme a week prior during their Off the Hook segment in Splatoon 2 while the voting booth appears in the square. Inklings receive a themed Splatfest Tee, a piece of gear that is wearable only until the Splatfest ends, once they join a team. Two days before a Splatfest, neon signs adorned with up-and-down-pointing arrows appear on walls and buildings. The day before it takes place, the Plaza becomes noticeably more crowded and two large trucks supporting stage scaffolding appear in the area's center. In Splatoon 2, one day before the Splatfest, a large performance stage appears in the plaza, above the entrance to the battle lobby. On the tower behind the stage is a screen displaying the two battling teams' mascots. During a Splatfest, Regular & Ranked Battle options are not available, as they are temporarily replaced by the Splatfest Battle option; however, Private Battles can still be accessed.

In Splatoon 2, there are two ways to enter Splatfest Battles: Solo & Team. Solo mode works like Splatfest in the original Splatoon game; the player automatically matches with three other players and battle against groups of four random players from the opposing team. Team mode requires four players (must be friends with someone from the same team who is in the Lobby) to join a private lobby before being matched up against another team of four.

Splatfest Power


Splatfest Power is a feature introduced in Version 2.6.0 of Splatoon as a way of tracking players' skill during Splatfests, replacing the Vibe meter. While Splatfest matchmaking was previously based on play styles, players are now matched based on similar Splatfest Power levels. It is initially determined by one's Rank and may rise or fall depending on how well one does in battles.

After each Splatfest Battle, players on the winning team get roughly ten points toward their Splatfest Power, the losing team loses roughly ten, depends on the difference between the two teams' Spaltfest power level, and the player on the winning team with the highest Splatfest Power gains an additional one to two points.

The top 100 players with the highest Splatfest Power will be shown on Splatnet and in the social network sites of Splatoon.

Reward Tiers
Super Sea Snails are awarded to participants based on the size of their team, matches won, and ground covered, which dictate each player's Splatfest Title.

Splatoon
Splatfest EXP is earned by participating in and winning matches. Winning a match earns you a point based on the Splatfest Power, and your participation bonus is based on how much BP worth of ground you covered in ink during the match. If you cover 200–399 BP worth of ground, you earn 1 bonus participation EXP; if you cover 400+ BP worth of ground, you earn 2 bonus participation EXP, also the player on the winning team with the highest Splatfest Power gains an additional 2. One can earn a maximum of 11 EXP per match if your team wins, you have the highest Splatfest Power among your team, and you cover at least 400 BP worth of ground during the match.

One hour after Splatfest concludes, the results are announced during a broadcast. The results are based on team popularity, the percentage of the vote each team received, and wins, the percentage of matches each team won. Win percentage is worth six times more than the value of popularity. Players are awarded Super Sea Snails based on the Splatfest Title they have earned. Players on the winning team will earn more Super Sea Snails that those on the losing team.

To collect their prize, players must log into Splatoon before the next Splatfest theme is announced. The new Splatfest announcement overrides the announcement of the winners of the previous Splatfest, and no Super Sea Snails will be bestowed.

Splatoon
The final score is calculated based both on popularity and on wins. The formula in Splatoon is as follows:

When the Squid Sisters announce the results, the highest of the popularity and win percentages are both individually highlighted before the final results are shown.

The formula used to use, but this was changed in Version 2.2.0.

The formula was at first, but this was changed in Version 2.0.0.

Splatoon 2
In Splatoon 2, the final score is a straight tally of how many categories each team has a majority in. There are three categories:
 * Popularity (in percentage points)
 * Normal Mode Clout (in normal points)
 * Pro Mode Clout (also in normal points)

When Off the Hook announces the results, the highest of each category are all individually highlighted before the final results are shown, just as in the previous game.

Before Version 4.0.0, the latter two categories used to be Solo Wins and Team Wins, both percentages.

Upcoming or ongoing Splatfests
The following is a list of upcoming or ongoing Splatfest events and their start times.

Summary
The following table lists all Splatfests in every region. Bold text signifies a Splatfest victory.

Summary
The following table lists all Splatfests in every region. Bold text signifies a Splatfest victory.

Delays
While the first Splatfest event, in Japan, went by flawlessly, the first North American Splatfest was delayed. The reason given was because of matchmaking issues with Japanese players. . The original schedule for the event was from 2015-06-20 (Sat) at 6 AM PDT to 2015-06-21 (Sun) at 6 AM PDT, and some days later, it was revealed that it would be moved to 2015-07-04 (Sat) at midnight PT.

The first European Splatfest event, that was meant to start on the 27th of June at midnight CEST, was equally postponed, so that it would take place on the same day as the North American one.

Later, the first Splatfest event held simultaneously worldwide was supposed to have its results announced at the same time across all regions, despite the different start and ending times. Initially, the results were going to be announced on 2016-02-21 (Sun) at 16:00 JST (18:00 AEST, 8:00 CEST, 2016-02-20 11:00PM PST). However, despite a notification of Callie and Marie's announcement, servers ended up being under maintenance since 15:30 JST, preventing the results from being received. Eventually, at midnight PST (19:00 AEST, 17:00 JST, 9:00 CEST), the servers were running again and players were able to view the results.

Trivia

 * Some randomly selected players are able to join as early as 5 minutes before the official start time for faster matchmaking.
 * If the game takes too long to find an enemy team for Splatfest, members of the same team will battle each other with regular colors. Splatfest EXP can be earned in these matches, but they do not affect the total win percentage for either team.
 * In Splatoon, when Judd dances on his box, the pillow he sleeps on disappears. It reappears after the Splatfest when Judd goes back to sleep. In Splatoon 2, he and Li'l Judd are moved to different location while a Splatfest is going.
 * Many characters in both games will bob their head or start dancing while a Splatfest is going, including Cap'n Cuttlefish and Spyke in Splatoon and Marie and Murch in Splatoon 2.
 * During the preparation of a Splatfest, the voting booth doesn't appear when the player is not connected to the internet.
 * The Fox and Tanuki statues in Inkopolis Plaza each represent opposite sides during a Splatfest. The Fox's bib and Tanuki's shirt change color to match their team.
 * The end pose of the dance Callie and Marie do during a Splatfest represents the two teams fighting each other.
 * According to Marina, the Splatfest rules state that the option that won a Splatfest is legally better than the one that lost. This even holds true if Splatfest results contradict scientific consensus, as evidenced by Pearl's comments at the conclusion of the Chicken vs. Egg Splatfest.
 * In the same dialogue, Pearl refers to this rule as article 3, section 2 of Splatfest law.
 * In Japan, Team Hello Kitty and team My Melody were the first two consecutive wins of Pearl, while Marina's first two European consecutive victories occurred in their Splatfest tournament, but in the final round, Donnie, then Donnie again.
 * It is referenced in Off the Hook's dialogue after a Splatfest concludes says that Li'l Judd is tallying the results. In the top left corner during the news announcement for the results, it says "Splatfest results announced, Li'l Judd Exhausted".
 * After Splatfest concludes, the player will default to wearing the in both Splatoon and Splatoon 2 if they are an Inkling, or the  if they are an Octoling.
 * When the Squid vs. Octopus Splatfest was announced, Marina brings up the potential racist undertones of it as "dangerous" and "confrontational" which Pearl says that it's meant to see in a literal case as when the Splatfest was announced around the Internet first, many people deemed it "the Second Great Turf War" between Inklings and Octolings.
 * It then reveals shows that Off the Hook are simply pretending that Octolings are Inklings with "weird hairstyles" as it showed in Octo Expansion that Inkling society doesn't know that Marina is an Octoling.
 * During the Squid vs. Octopus Splatfest, the players' appearance will match their team only during matches, meaning that all players on Team Squid will be Inklings and players on Team Octopus are Octolings, even if players haven't unlocked Octolings yet. Players will keep the rest of their customization such as gender, eye and skin color, while having the default hairstyle for the character, if a player happens to be the opposite species.
 * The lifetime ink coverage tracked in SplatNet 2 counts the turf inked as the species the player appeared during battle (e.g. it only counts as an Inkling, even if the player was an Octoling appearing as an Inkling on Team Squid.)
 * During the Squid vs. Octopus Splatfest and celebrated on Splatoon 2's 1st anniversary, falling confetti appears at the start of the match, and squid-shaped and octopus-shaped fireworks appear in Shifty Station.

Names in other languages
Splatfest Titles