Splat Zones

Splat Zones is a multiplayer mode in Splatoon. It was released in the Ranked Battles category on June 1, 2015 after enough players reached level 10.

History
Splat Zones was announced on March 23, 2015 when video game journalists from around the world were invited to a Nintendo event in Seattle, Washington. It was revealed that this mode would not be available at launch, but would instead be released at a later, unspecified, date.

Description
Splat Zones plays similarly to the King of the Hill mode from other video games. It revolves around a number of "zones," usually one central zone, which players must attempt to cover in ink with a five minute game clock. Once a team has covered about 75% of a zone in their ink, the zone is "captured". When all of the zones have been captured by a team, that team is "in control" of the zones and their countdown clock begins. The opposing team must try to capture the zones in the same manner. The first team who remains in control for a total of 100 points or has the least amount of time left on their countdown clock and has control of the zone(s) wins the match.

Controlling all of the zones causes the team's countdown clock to start. Losing control of one or more zones causes the team's countdown clock to stop. If the team yields control of all of the zones to the other team, a penalty is given. Upon retaking all zones with a penalty, first the penalty clock ticks down, and then when clear, the countdown timer resumes.

If the losing team has control of the zones as time runs out, then the match will go into overtime. The match ends once the losing team regains the lead, or the winning team regains control, or the zones remain uncontrolled for 10 continuous seconds.

The total time for a team to win a match after they control the zone without additional penalty or losing control is 60 seconds.

In-game Info
"In orange, teams battle for control of a stage's orange. Each stage has orange zones. To gain control of a orange, just splatter it with ink! Once your team controls a zone, try to hold it for as long as possible. Your team's timer will start once you control orange in a stage. If your timer reaches zero, your team wins! But if you lose control of a single zone, your team's timer will stop. There's also a penalty for losing control of orange, so guard them with all your might! If the battle ends without a winner, the team with the lowest count on its orange will claim victory! In this orange, Battle Points are awarded based on your orange. Oh, and here's a pro tip for ya: if you lose control of a orange, wait for your team to regroup instead of trying to be a hero!"

- In-game Info

Penalty
The penalty assigned to a team is dependent entirely on their own performance. The opposing team's progress is not taken into account.

The penalty for losing control of the zone is calculated as follows:

X = time remaining when team first captured the zone Y = time remaining when the zone was captured by the opposition

penalty = 0.75 × (X - Y) This value is rounded to the nearest integer and added to any existing penalty. if X = 100, 1 is added after rounding.

"Time remaining" is the sum of the main timer and any penalty in effect. The value of X is set when a team regains control of the point from an opponent, but not when regaining control of the point from its neutral state.

Trivia

 * Splat Zones bears a strong resemblance to Team Fortress 2's King of the Hill mode and Domination Control Point mode, where a team needs to capture a zone and their clock to countdown to zero in order to win the match. In Splatoon, there can be one or two zones to control and if you manage to recapture the zone from the other team, they get a penalty time added to their count.