Final Decision in the Chaos vs. Order Final Splatocalypse

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Possibly affecting the world in Splatoon 3?

You may remember the Splatoon 2 World Championship 2019 that Nintendo hosted as one of their pre-E3 2019 tournament events.

You may then remember by the end of that tournament, Nintendo announced the final Splatfest that takes place next week starting Thursday July 18 (coupled with the last content updates), referred to as the Splatocalypse. Scary name... with a familiar theme to long-time KoopaTV readers. Check out the question:

“What kind of world do you wanna live in?
A world of chaos? Or a world of order?”

I already wrote about this exact topic over five years ago in an article entitled, /v/ Vs. NeoGAF: Chaos Vs. Order. It is just as relevant today, but just replace NeoGAF with ResetEra for a contemporary point of view. (Given NeoGAF's demise from relevance.) If you want to fully understand my opinion on chaos vs. order, and why I'm on Team Chaos, read that article. Truly, my thoughts haven't budged a bit. If I were to write that article today, I'd use the exact same Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn comparison that I did back then.

If you still doubt the validity of that article to this Splatfest, check out this Splatoon 2 accessory:

The Hivemind Antenna, a Team Order feature.

In my original article, I repeated the oft-made (up to that point) claim that NeoGAF represented a hivemind, saying, “Moderators will delete and ban you for any dissent from the hivemind.” Hiveminds go well with order. Now look at Team Order captain Marina handing out Hivemind Antennae through the Nintendo Switch News application. It all fits.

I don't really need to go into how all of the big personalities and significant figures in Inkopolis life are also weighing in with their opinions, because as a big personality myself, my decision is my own and doesn't have to be influenced by others’. You, of course, are a small personality, so please just pick Team Chaos for the reasons I wrote about five years ago.

With that out of the way, let's discuss the implications of the decision that I'm making and telling you to emulate.

“I hereby invoke Article 4 of Splatfest Law!
That means the losing side has to accept the world the winning side wants.”

Yes, the world will have to accept the results of the Splatfest by law. That... doesn't exactly mean that the world will transform overnight. Mere acceptance does not do anything. It just paves the way for actual transformative action... which the winner may or may not be too lazy to actually implement. There were plots to use Splatfest law for evil purposes—creating a race war between Inklings and Octolings—but even the Inkling supremacists that got excited over Team Squid winning must acknowledge that a Splatfest victory doesn't mean anything unless it's backed up by action. And as of now, that still hasn't happened. (Inklings have a long history of being lazy and not being able to wake up in the morning, after all. Societal change takes effort.)

But let's assume that there will actually be changes. It's now time that I'd like to address this request I received back in November 2018 from ShinyGirafarig:

“Splatoon 2 is planning to end their major updates soon along with Splatfests in the summer, excluding any potential update that make fixes due to exploits or glitches found. The Switch is still in its early ears at the time of this comment. Should Splatoon 3 be on the Switch as well or the next console? It may be a long wait for the next console and Splatoon 2 may be losing support over time due to loss of interest from all but the most hardcore fanbase. Basically should a major multiplayer game be one per console or is it okay for it to have sequels on the same console? The Smash series has been one per console so far but Pokémon did have 2 gens for a single handheld (gen 1 and 2 except for Crystal was playable on the original Gameboy, gen 4 and 5 on DS, gen 6 and 7 on 3DS).

People may be upset that they worked very hard on their gear and rankings for Splatoon 2 yet people may have worked hard on raising Pokémon for competitive play as well for a given gen before the sequel was announced. I argued that the Switch can make something like Pokémon Bank for Splatoon 2 to transfer to 3 so at least their gear can be transferred to. They can be the problem that abilities can be changed like how Damage Up and Defense Up was removed from Splatoon 1 to 2.”

Well, some parts of this request clearly didn't anticipate things like the Nintendo Switch Lite or the National Dex controversy in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. Anyway, I would rather have these games be true games-as-a-service and only have one major release per hardware iteration. To address a concern in the request, I would rather have players not be able to transfer competitive gear between versions, if only to indicate a substantial difference between sequels, as well as for reasons that the societies are different and the player characters are different as well. Ever-impatient fans are wanting a Splatoon 3 soon and believe the results of the Chaos vs. Order Splatocalypse will directly impact what happens in Splatoon 3, similar to how Callie vs. Marie in the Wii U Splatoon directly impacted the world of Splatoon 2.

If they're ending Splatoon 2 updates after about a week or so from now, that development team is going to start on Splatoon 3, right? (I'd rather they work on something else entirely to help keep the employees inspired and less burned out... and then go to Splatoon 3 later.) Will that be on Switch hardware? Or a future console? And how long will we have to wait for that future console? If there's a wait, will Nintendo just let the very popular Splatoon IP languish and do nothing for years?

Probably not. That's why other popular media franchises keep fans entertained with things like anime, movies, manga, and spin-offs. And Splatoon already does a lot of that. ...It'd be nice if those spilled out of Japan, though.

But, yes, since Splatoon 2 won't be getting content updates to reflect the results of Team Chaos vs. Team Order, then the only way to express that—and clearly at least Pearl and Marina intend to express that by so vocally making it a part of their Splatocalypse announcement—will be in Splatoon 3. Provided that there is a long gap of time between this and the sequel—such as with a post-Switch release—then the difference in the world of Inkopolis will be significantly different than the relatively interchangeable appearances of Callie and Marie.

The ante has been upped from individual idols to the entire society.

And I can't wait for it to be chaotic.


Ludwig enjoys the freedom and ability to create change that is associated with Team Chaos. He believes having written about Chaos vs. Order five years in advance means that Team Chaos is fated for victory, despite predetermined fates being an orderly thing. He sees no reason why you would vote for Team Order, but feel free to discuss in the comments section. (Perhaps you also want to discuss it in the /v/ vs. NeoGAF article's comment section.) Ludwig finds “Splatocalypse” difficult to spell.


The prior Splatfest was about the two make-believe creatures called unicorn and narwhal.
Team Chaos has won the final Splatfest!
There may be some... drastic consequences for Team Chaos actually winning.
You see how this article repeatedly says this was the final Splatfest? Yeah... that plumbing bastard ruined that.