Competitive:EndGame Splatoon Premier League

Unofficial

The EndGame Splatoon Premier League (eSPL) was a competitive Splatoon league.

History
The EndGame Splatoon Premier League was mooted as early as the fall of 2015, and the Inkstorm tournament series was held in preparation for it, with the top 8 teams intended to be invited into the league. However, changes in squad composition and the disbandment of former competitive teams BMT and Exultance Gaming, among others, required some other teams to be invited (such as NIS); the demise of Omohide spurred an additional four-team playoff, held on March 11th, to select a 16th and final team.

Casts were held on EndGameTV's official Twitch account, and although the first league casts were to be held on March 18th-19th, 2016, the first league match took place on March 15th, 2016, and saw Squids Next Door defeat Koopa Clan in a full-length overtime by a 5-4 score.

Standings
The standings for the event are as follows:

Format
The eSPL consisted of 16 invited teams, split into two conferences (Kid and Squid). Each team played a round robin schedule of seven fixtures in four weeks. Each match was a Best-of-6 with a Best-of-3 overtime where necessary.

After the regular season, the top half of the league was seeded into playoffs, while the bottom half must play the winners of an open tournament to remain in the league. The first such tournament, InkCage, was held on March 5th-6th, 2016 to take in eight teams.

Kid Conference
The Kid Conference was dominated all season by Civilization, which posted the only undefeated season and a +24 game differential, far and away the highest in the league. After an 0-2 start, Get Kraken stormed back to win four of their last five, including a must-win contest against Squids Next Door in the final week, to claim the #2 seed. HAO Star split each of its first three weeks and secured entry by defeating Koopa Clan 4-2 in the final week. Black Paper!, which had looked to be one of the top two teams, lost to Get Kraken, and by virtue of its earlier loss to HAO Star, it was awarded the 4 seed.

Team Paradise started 3-0 but could not secure another win. Its final match, a 4-0 sweep against Civilization, was a Viking funeral for the squad, with players' names reading "The Team is Dead". Koopa Clan and Squids Next Door could not win when they needed to in the final week, while Crème Fresh did not pick up a single win and finished with a league-worst -22 game differential.

Squid Conference
The Squid Conference proved to be far more competitive. NIS, aside from being forced to forfeit a match due to player issues, went undefeated to post a 6-1 record. The second seed also brought forth a Japanese squad, Kamo-Cat at 5-2. The forfeit of NIS helped HAO Moon to claim a spot in a playoff tiebreaker along with Extermination, which won two of its last three; Cooldown, which got off to a roaring 4-0 start only to fall flat in the final week; and NSTC. All four teams finished at 4-3.

Two squads were out of the playoff picture by the final week of the season. SpeedRunsLive disappointed and finished 1-6, with its only win against 0-7 Team Overlook. Overlook folded after its final match against NSTC.

Playoffs
On April 9th, 2016, the regular season ended with playoff set to be scheduled soon after. However, a tiebreaker was announced to occur in the Squid Conference to decide the last two teams who would qualify into playoffs alongside NIS and Kamo-Cat. The four teams that participated in the tiebreaker were CoolDown, Extermination, HAO Moon, and NSTC. The tiebreaker was held on April 16th, 2016, and saw teams Extermination and Name Subject to Change coming on top of the tiebreaker.

The following teams from the Kid Conference qualified for playoffs:


 * Black Paper!
 * Civilization
 * Get Kraken
 * HAO Star

The following teams from the Squid Conference qualified for playoffs:


 * Extermination
 * Kamo-Cat
 * NIS
 * NSTC

Playoffs began on April 23rd, 2016 and finished on April 30th, 2016, officially ending the first season of the eSPL.