Splatoon 3 European Championship 2023 - UK & Ireland

The Splatoon 3 European Championship 2023 - UK & Ireland was a tournament that is part of the Splatoon 3 European Championship 2023. The tournament was officially announced on 5 April 2023.

Qualifier & Grand Final info
There were a total of 8 qualifier events prior to the Grand Final taking place, with 2 of them being held online. Many of the qualifiers garnered criticism from UK players for not giving enough advance notice for people to prepare and arrange travel for the event(s).

Qualifier 1
Location: Insomnia70, Birmingham Date: 2023-04-08 Winner: The Flying Dutchman

Qualifier 2
This qualifier was for players who participated in the NSE University Championship.

Location: Insomnia70, Birmingham Date: 2023-04-09 Winner: Disconnect

Qualifier 3
This online qualifier took part within NPUK Squid League 2023, which took place from March to April 2023. However, the qualification spot for the winner of the top bracket was announced near the end of the tournament’s duration in April 2023.

Location: Online Format(s): Swiss stages, best-of-5, single-elimination, best-of-7 Date: 2023-03-05 - 2023-04-30 Winner: Chew-Its Mafia

Participating teams
A total of 20 teams participated in Squid League, with the teams later being divided into top and bottom brackets depending on their results in the Swiss Stages. Below are all the teams and their players, as well as their final Swiss Stage placement.

Qualifiers 4 & 5
Location: RakuCon, Manchester Date: 2023-08-12 + 2023-08-13 Winners: Inkxiety Elevated + SPARK

Qualifier 6
This was the 2nd of the online qualifiers and was co-hosted by Nintendo Players UK.

Location: Online Date: 2023-09-03 Winner: Krusty Krab

Participating teams

 * Abyss Ink
 * At First I LOLed
 * Krusty Krab
 * More Boulets
 * Ocean Basket
 * Om Nom Nom Nom Nom
 * This Way
 * Annaki Rainbow
 * [T] nightcore @ 25.00

Qualifiers 7 & 8
The final two qualifiers were billed as “last chance qualifiers”, as they took place during the same weekend as the Grand Final itself.

Location: Insomnia71, Birmingham Date: 2023-09-08 + 2023-09-09 Winners: Team Name Not Found + More Boulets

Grand Final
The grand final took place at Insomnia71 in Birmingham on 2023-09-10, the day after Splatoon 3’s one-year anniversary.

Only the semi-finals and the grand final were shown on the Insomnia stage, the other matches were held at the Nintendo booth earlier in the day. The final itself was not live-streamed directly by Nintendo UK or Insomnia, therefore a number of fans banded together to stream it. The full audience-view VOD for the final can be found here.

The grand final received some additional criticism for changing the format from best-of-5 to best-of-3 midway through due to being pushed for time, as it was held during the final 2 hours of the overall Insomnia event.

Format: Best-of-5, best-of-3, single-elimination Champions: SPARK Runners-up: Chew-Its Mafia