Called It: The Splatoon 3 North American Championship 2023 Tournament Takes Places at PAX East After All

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Not that anyone said my guess would be wrong, but they just refused to confirm it.

As a smart, educated Koopaling, I knew the moment that Nintendo of America announced the Splatoon 3 Splatsville Showdown that took place in December 2022 and January 2023 that advertised that the Grand Prize winners “will win a round trip to Boston, MA and may be invited to participate in the Splatoon 3 North American Championship 2023 tournament”, that this Boston event would be PAX East.

Some people in the official support Discord server really thought that the trip would be a tour of the city or something, and they wanted to win it as a present for their siblings or parents or whatever. No, the winner would be expected to play in a NintendoVS tournament on PAX East, and you wouldn't want to give the prize to your non-Splatoon-playing younger sister because you wouldn't want them to be humiliated in front of a livestreamed audience. (And yes, it'll be streamed on March 26.)

Anyway, today Nintendo officially announced that, yes, the Splatoon 3 North American Championship 2023 would take place at PAX East (which is a gaming convention that occurs March 23 to March 26, managed by ReedPop, who are also managing E3 2023), and that “[t]op players from the Splatoon 3 Splatsville Showdown tournament will go squid-to-squid for prizes like Splatoon 3 themed controllers and trophies.” Those may sound like inadequate prizes, but keep in mind that everyone able to participate already got a set of prizes. (Including a trophy, the flight to Boston, and a hotel. Not mentioned is if they have PAX East tickets paid for by Nintendo.) Those Splatoon 3 teams are Starburst, Destiny Bond, Crush Soda, and Sayonara.

There are also two Mario Kart 8 Deluxe events for some reason. One is a qualifier (which takes place on two different days) where anyone attending PAX East can play, and if they do well, they get invited to a Championship Cup 2023 on March 26 and be livestreamed. The prizes are more trophies and controllers.

In addition, there is the NintendoVS Arcade booth open throughout PAX East, featuring Mario Party Superstars, Mario Golf: Super Rush, New Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, and Yoshi's Crafted World—all possibly multiplayer titles that they'll want you to play with other gamers there.

Two questions. Number one, why won't Nintendo come to E3 2023? Because ReedPop is marketing E3 2023 as partly a consumer event, they could have a similar multiplayer booth of old games there, too. Number two, why Yoshi's Crafted World? No one cares about that game. You know what would get people in your booth? Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Whether it's available to casually play or they do an actual tournament for it at the event, that'd probably make the NintendoVS booth the hottest one at PAX East. (Or E3 2023 if they did it there.) Yoshi's Crafted World sure isn't in the spirit of NintendoVS, that I can tell you.


Ludwig dislikes the missed opportunity, and it's a bit weird that they are hosting an invitational for a total of four teams to play at. Bit what do you think of the matter? Let KoopaTV know in the comments section, and know that commenting enters YOU into a competition hosted by KoopaTV called the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program.


If you win a Splatoon 3 Championship 2023 Qualifier Event, you'll get a flight to Nintendo Live 2023, which is in the same building at the same time as PAX West.