So, this is the first time I've ever played Splatoon and my experience so far has been kinda crappy. I've played 10 games, and despite coming top of my team like 6 of those times, the other team always seems to have 70+ percent of the turf when the game ends. Is there a reason I'm being matched with people who don't know how Turf War works?

Welcome to the land of team based online gaming. There are probably an infinite number of reasons why you lost those matches. If you want to take such things seriously, then you have one option: form your own party. I know that's not a great solution and even that doesn't guarantee victory, but yeah. Hopefully this post doesn't sound too meanspirited. It's just the nature of the beast really.

A bad workman blames his tools.

Seems abit harsh to call most my teammates tools

It just sounds like poor matchmaking at work.

To sympathise, I've had similar experiences in Halo 5 of double digit losses in a row in the past year due to the game consistently matching up 12-player parties with 12 randoms (over 50% of the time I was top scorer in team). It's the reason I stopped playing that game type (and the game, mostly) as it was devoid of fun.

I think your only options are to give the developer feedback, party up with people, solo perseverance or just give the game/game mode a miss.

I chose the later in Halo 5's case because 343i is too big a machine to hear multiple complaints over the issue. I'm not sure about Splatoon's developer, but you've probably got better luck of getting the message through.

I doubt Splatoon's community has as many overly aggressive man-children as Halo's community (although I may be wrong), so why not find some friendly, yet competitive people to play with?

Maybe they can change the balancing as this is only a demo right?

Either way I seemed to always have pretty good random teams when I played Splatoon 1 and won a good ratio of matches so I don't know what to say. Maybe the matchmaking is broken in the demo like you say.

Would be interested in hearing other experiences.

The other team understands it. =P

@sasnake: :)

This is the first time I play any Splatoon and it's been pretty 50/50. The start was a bit rough, I lost 5 games in a row (playing solo), then we won a few games, and then it started getting more even. The first few I lost were pretty brutal like yours though, losing all the turf and not entirely understanding why.

Maybe you should look at the one constant in all your games.

That Im usually the best player in my team? Yeah I've looked at that.

@otakugamer: I didn't intend my post to sound salty, as I'm not feeling frustrated or anything, I was just curious if there is something about the way matchmaking works.

There are probably a lot of people like me who didn't own the original who don't have a clue what's going on. After reading the post though I started focusing on just spreading my paint everywhere and didn't lose a game after losing a lot sooooo...

But why do you care so much about winning in a demo of a game about squid kids who battle over territory with ink? In my own experience when you focus too much on winning and being the bestest you end up sucking the fun out of the game and getting even worse. Just chill and have fun with this stupid game.

If you've lost 10 out of 10 games you're likely not the best player on your team every time. If you're saying you're the best because you always have the most kills, then you don't really understand how the game works. They don't tell you how much paint each person puts down, so how do you know you're any good?

Being the best player on a team also means less if said team is getting destroyed.

I played 8 games, solo. The first 3, we lost bad. The next 3, we stomped. It's all about unfortunate matchmaking. It'll get better as people learn to play the game beyond the demo.

Remember guys, no one owned a Wii U

A lot of people playing this demo are probably going in blind

Painting -> Killing

Because I spend my entire time rolling around the map with a paint roller. Taking over the enemy colour/blank spaces. Only time I kill is if somebody is in the way.

Wow perfect analogy sir.

Great point.

Also, you have those runs in multiplayer games with shit teammates. This is what makes me stop playing BF1 for the day. Sometimes you just can't win.

I see the git gud community has already completely ruined Splatoon 2. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. :D

If the wrench fits...

No you are literally the only one. Does that male you feel better champ?

In my experience, Splatfest doesn't have much of a matchmaking system. It seems more focused on grouping 4 players of each "team" and getting them into a game as quickly as possible. I think it's made more evident as in splatfests with a heavy team preference (such as ice cream in this most recent event) the game will match up two groups of the same team, rather than waiting for a group of the opposing team to become a ailable.

But splatfests aside, turf war in general is typically an experience in random team members of a spectrum of skill levels. Sometimes it's skilled players just testing out new weapon types that they're not familiar with.

The original Splatoon did a much better job matching up players in "ranked" mode. Once you hit "A" or so, you're pretty much assured a team of players that know what's up. In Splatoon 2, Nintendo is touting a ranking for each type of ranked mode.

Anyway, as a big fan of the original, I'm sticking with the mindset that Turf War is the testing ground, Splatfests are for chaotic fun and collecting some sacrificial sea snails and ranked mode is where the actual skilled competition is.

Happy inking!

I'm just realizing that this saying is the real life precursor to git gud

Like most people said, I think you should take the end results of these matches with a grain of salt. I know that I wasted a couple matches figuring out what weapons I like the most or just figuring out the layout of the maps. I know there is a test mode for that but that's way less fun.

I also saw quite a number of teammates saving their supers, something I understand in a game like Overwatch, but since you lose meter when you die in splatoon, it doesn't make as much sense.

The other side of the coin here is that maybe splatoon isn't for you? This isn't me questioning your skill, just saying maybe the lackadaisical nature that I think most people play this game with might not be what you want. Or just wait for the game to come out and play mostly Ranked, where people care more/are better.

What in the world is up with the overt hostility in these comments?

Let the guy vent it out, god damn. I know I've made my fair share of ranting threads when I've gotten pissed off at a game.

Most people probably had never played splatoon before. Once the full game is out for a bit I'm sure it'll even out.

I won every game I played during the splatfest and I would like to thank my tools for being good-ass tools.

Not really sure why people here are being mean to you. It's a team-based game and you won't always get a winning crew. You must have some bad luck with losses that lop-sided.

Is this like Mario Kart where it's basically just a party game and people shouldn't take it seriously?

I personally think no online game, esp. a game where you're reliant on a team, should be taken seriously. I can go into a whole ramble on how competition leads to anger instead of satisfaction, but I'll just leave it at that.

I can feel the pain, so no worries. Seems if u just have one bad link on your team then you have too much ground to make up in order to win. I'll go on long win streaks and then long losing streaks. I just got into ranked battles and lost my first 6 I think because no one would go fight for the tower (and, also, the tower game mode seems terrible imo compared to turf war).

Getting to level 4 it's super rough, the game is incredibly unbalanced. But once you get some better weapons it's not so bad. I do get some shit team mates a lot of the time though, but now that I have better guns I can carry them easier. I've seen quite a few go AFK right at the start of the match. Always annoys the shit out of me.

I picked this up after the QL, didnt play the first one and I am on a 16 game losing streak. It feels like if we're not plain outmatched, then half the team is afk. I know a lot of it is just matchmaking luck but its so debilitating to feel like theres nothing you could be doing to eek out a win. And it's far worse when that is the full first two days of owning the game.

Think I'm going to just focus on the single player for a while and maybe the matchmaking will sort itself out a bit? Really love the game's style and want to keep at it but theres only so many consecutive losses at the top of the team's kill/ink board that i can take >_<

Not sure if I'm in Splatoon forum or DOTA2 forum.

Yeah, online games. You just gotta do your best to help your team help you.

Have you tried team-killing to teach those scrubs a lesson?

Most new players focus too much on killing the other team instead of painting the environment which is 90% of the point in that mode.matchmaking will get better the more you rank up. Keep at it and don't get discouraged.

Yep, it's frustrating. I'd like to say that at higher levels the play is more consistent, but the truth is that you're still going to get some matches where you just stomp/get stomped by either a group of more coordinated players, or have a team full of knuckleheads. It's not exclusive to Splatoon, ask any MOBA player.