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 in which Inklings choose between two teams, such as Cats or Dogs, and compete in Turf Wars for Super Sea Snails.



Description
Splatfest is a recurring event hosted by the Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie. During this event, Inklings are able to choose between two teams and participate in battles against each other. Inklings are limited to two colors during the Splatfest, reflecting which side they're on. The clothing section of the equip screen also becomes locked and all players are forced to wear the Splatfest Tee, which changes in color and design based on an Inkling's chosen team. Inkopolis Plaza and all the stages are decorated with a flood of Miiverse posts from the Splatfest/Festival tag on the Splatoon community, some of which take the form of neon signs, banners and even fireworks. Darkness also descends over Inkopolis and all Turf War stages. Fireworks go off periodically in the plaza, and specks of light resembling fireflies or fire embers can be seen rising into the sky. Each Splatfest lasts 24 hours, during which time the region involved will be isolated and Splatfest players will only face off against players of their own region. Meanwhile all other regions will continue to play amongst each other. Super Sea Snails are awarded to participating players upon Splatfest's conclusion.

Preparation
Before a Splatfest begins, Inkopolis Plaza experiences a variety of visual upgrades to prepare for the event. One week before a Splatfest, a voting booth appears next to the Miiverse Mailbox and the event's theme is announced. Inklings also receive a themed Splatfest Tee, a piece of gear that is wearable for a limited amount of time. 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. During a Splatfest, Regular & Ranked Battle options are not available; however, Private Battles can still be accessed.

Splatfest Power


Splatfest Power is a feature introduced in Version 2.6.0 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.

These are simply rough guidelines; initial Splatfest Power is also based on other factors. Depending on the circumstances, a player may get an initial value higher or lower than would be indicated by their Rank alone.

After each Splatfest Battle, players on the winning team get ten points toward their Splatfest Power, the losing team loses ten, 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.

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.

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.

Victory
The final score is calculated based both on popularity and on wins. The formula 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 in the August Update.

List of Splatfests
The following is a list of all Splatfest events and their start times. On each event in the tables, the first choice is always sided by Callie while the second is sided by Marie.

Upcoming or ongoing
 Ink colors assumed from artwork.

Completed

 * North America

Miiverse
Before and for the entire period of Splatfest players can post messages of support for their side to a special channel on Miiverse that will be displayed throughout Splatfest. This is done through a special option that shows up during Splatfest.

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 June 20th, 2015 (Sat) at 6 AM PDT to June 21st (Sun) at 6 AM PDT, and some days later, it was revealed that it would be moved to July 4th (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 21st of February 2016 (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.
 * In a Splatfest, if the game takes too long to find an enemy team, members of the same team will join and battle with regular colors. Splatfest EXP can be earned in these matches, but they do not affect the total win percentage for either team.
 * When Judd dances on his box, the pillow he sleeps on disappears. It reappears after the Splatfest when Judd goes back to sleep.
 * When not near him, Cap'n Cuttlefish will pop out of the entrance to Octo Valley and start bobbing his head to the music.
 * The end pose of the dance Callie and Marie do during a Splatfest represents the two teams fighting each other.
 * Marie's line “Mmmm... Donuts.” in the Cars vs. Planes Splatfest seems to be a reference to one of Homer Simpson's many quotes "Mmm... (insert noun)."

Superlatives

 * As of October 11th, 2015, the closest Splatfests so far are the 2nd and 6th NA Splatfests, Rollercoasters vs Water Slides and Cars vs Planes respectively, both with a 4 total point difference. The 2nd Splatfest still used the old formula, prior to the version 2.0.0 update, however.
 * The Cats vs. Dogs Splatfest is the only Splatfest theme that has been used at different times for two different regions.
 * Team Barbarian is the least popular team to ever win a Splatfest, as they were only 23% of the popular vote.
 * As of March 20, 2016, all regions have had Marie's team win four times.
 * The eleventh Japan Splatfest, Pokémon Red vs. Pokémon Green, was the biggest point difference, with a 146 point difference. It's also the highest win rate with 64%.
 * The biggest point difference in a NA splatfest was also Pokémon Red vs. Pokémon Blue, with a difference of 98 points.
 * The biggest point difference in a EU/OC Splatfest was Pineapple on pizza, with Disgusting winning by 72 points.
 * Cars vs. Planes was the first Splatfest where raising the battle multiplier to x4 in Version 2.0.0 made a difference in the outcome.
 * The change in battle multiplier to x6 in Version 2.2.0 would have changed the outcome of the Japanese Red Fox vs. Green Tanuki and Squid vs. Octopus Splatfests.
 * If the European Fit vs. Rich, Japanese Red Fox vs. Green Tanuki Second and Japanese Perfect Body vs. Perfect Brain Splatfests used the original x2 battle multiplier, they would have ended in a tie.
 * As of January 2, 2016, both the fifth NA (Art vs. Science) and EU (Messy vs. Tidy) Splatfest's matches AND the ninth NA (Naughty vs. Nice) and EU (Fit vs. Rich) Splatfest's matches took place in the exact same stages.
 * In the NoA Spanish and French localisations, the tenth NA Splatfest (Past vs. Future) is referred to as "Dinosaurs vs. Robots" in the reward tier system and the results announcement. The first announcement and the Pledge Box still refer it as "Past vs. Future".
 * The European Fit vs. Rich and Japanese Perfect Body vs. Perfect Brain Splatfests both had the same scores.
 * So far, the only Splatfest announced in-game before social media is Snowman vs. Sandcastle.
 * The SpongeBob vs. Patrick Splatfest was the first to match players against players from other regions, and was also the first to last for over 24 hours, lasting for 30.

Oddities

 * About midway through the Roller Coasters vs. Water Slides Splatfest in North America, the colors became randomized for a few rounds instead of the standard purple vs. green before returning to normal. Also, a few days before the Autobots vs. Decepticons Splatfest, during normal battles, the colors were locked to pink and dark purple, colors that usually are not available. It is unknown why this happened.