KZ: Congratulations on winning the 2023 Splatoon 3 AU/NZ Championships! Had you personally entered the AU/NZ Championships in previous years?

L: I’ve entered all previous AU/NZ Championship competitions. I won in 2017 and 2018 with the teams Blue Ringed Octolings and Yeah Nah respectively, going on to represent Australia and New Zealand in the Splatoon World Championships in those years too. As an aside, Yeah Nah was featured in K-Zone in 2018 and I’m really happy to appear in this magazine again! 

R: The AU/NZ champs was actually my first in-person event in general.

N: I entered in 2019 with a team called Morning Sun and made it to finals, where we were unfortunately reverse swept by Lime Soda. I was really keen to fight them again in the 2023 finals, as a lot of the members of the opposing team (Solstice) had overlap with Lime Soda.

KZ: What is your strength in a game of Splatoon 3, and what are the strengths of your teammates?

L: In Splatoon 3, I really enjoy playing the Snipewriter 5H and the E-liter 4K. Both of those weapons excel at enabling my teammates to snowball games as I’m staying alive and providing a jump point for my teammates to return to the fight faster. On Snipewriter 5H, I can also paint the map for my teammates quite well and weaken opponents for my teammates to finish them easily. I think it goes without saying but my teammates for the AU/NZ Championship and for the World Championship are all the best teammates I could ask for! Ardino has the best aim I’ve ever seen from a player and is mechanically very strong. Nex can play whatever we want him to extremely well and has great game sense. Re-Mi is always finishing off players I’ve weakened with Snipewriter 5H and keeps the team together. Finally, Micah plays the same weapons as me so he really encourages me to keep improving, otherwise he’d probably leave me behind at how good he is at them! 

R: I can’t say for myself, but people compliment my uses of the crab tank special. For my teammates; Latias is really good at anchoring the team by staying alive, Ardino is excellent at holding critical positions, and Nex is just a great frontline who can play anything.

N: I’d say my biggest strength is my movement and general game sense. I spent a lot of time in Splatoon 2 playing a weapon called “Sploosh-o-matic,” which encourages using your movement in order to get the upper hand in games/fights, so a lot of that experience has carried over to other shooters or even other classes such as Inkbrush (which I used at the World Championship). Latias’ ability to stay alive on Charger, whilst also having a very consistent aim makes her very overwhelming for the other team – there’s a reason she’s won the AU/NZ Champs three times! Re-Mi’s special usage on Crab, he knows exactly when and where to use them, which can really open up the map for us or defend pivotal chokepoints really well (which is really important in Splatoon 3), he definitely saved us a few games in the AU/NZ Finals. Ardino’s perfect positioning and pinpoint aim on Squeezer, one of the most oppressive shooters in the game, has flipped games in our favour all too often.

KZ: What do you want to work on improving?

L: I’d like to work on being more self-sufficient as a player. Even though Splatoon is a team game, I’d like to be able to get critical splats more often without my teammate’s support and not have them worry about me as often.

R: Consistency is always something I want to get better at, my performance varies from day to day, and I always want to be at my best.

N: My aim. The meta at the moment involves spamming cooler and winning fights, so if you whiff a fight it can cost you games.

KZ: Other than winning, what was the highlight of the AU/NZ Championship experience?

L: I got to meet many people who I had only spoken to online for the first time in person! Two players organised a Splatoon community Pancake Parlour trip the night before the tournament and I very much enjoyed meeting everyone (and the pancakes)!

R: Definitely meeting everyone in the AU/NZ community who I’ve known and talked to for years, then they were in the crowd watching us play, it’s something I can never forget.

N: Just seeing the community come together. The AU/NZ scene is tight-knit and close, but there hasn’t been a major event like this in years, so people flew interstate to see each other and watch. I was able to meet friends and teammates who I’d known online for years and have an insane weekend together which I’ll never forget.

KZ: Did you do anything outside the competition while in Japan?

L: We ended up going to Universal Studios Osaka and doing some shopping at the Nintendo Store and Pokemon Center! I’m glad my mum came with me to Japan with an extra suitcase!

R: Simply too much exciting stuff to list, my highlights are definitely visiting Nintendo World at Universal Studios, the Pokémon Centers, and seeing cherry blossoms during peak season!

N: It was the first time in Japan for a lot of us so we made sure to visit all the popular tourist spots in Japan such as Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. I think our favourite one had to be Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios. It was surreal seeing a lot of our childhood memories and characters come to life and it was truly an unforgettable experience.  

KZ: What do you do when you aren’t playing Splatoon 3?

L: When I’m not playing Splatoon, I’m most likely playing the Pokémon series. I play Pokémon competitively as well as Splatoon and attend my local Pokémon Video Game Championships (VGC) Regionals event every year. I also enjoy making YouTube videos in my spare time.

R: As you can expect I’m a big Nintendo fan, recently I’ve been playing Pokémon Crystal on the 3DS and I also collect Pokémon cards!

KZ: What is your favourite thing about Splatoon 3? If you could make a change to the game, what would it be?

L: My favourite thing about Splatoon 3 is the local scene surrounding the game. Splatoon wouldn’t be nearly as fun without all the friends I’ve made through the game. If I could do anything to Splatoon 3, I would add crocs with socks and a cork hat as clothing items to the game! But on a serious note, I would like to fix matchmaking so I can find online matches faster!

R: Splatoon 3 introduced great quality of life movement options and fun new specials - like my new favourite, crab tank. If I could change the game, I’d add new maps which are wide, like New Albacore Hotel from Splatoon 2.

N: Definitely the unique movement options. Other shoots you only really have the option to run or walk, whereas in Splatoon you have all sorts of options. You can run, swim, hide in your own ink, climb up certain walls etc. I think it makes fights and engagements really interesting compared to other shooters.

KZ: What are your top three tips for K-Zoners playing Splatoon 3?

L: Find and stick to a weapon that you enjoy playing. Play with your friends! And most importantly, have fun!

R: Be proud if you one-trick a weapon, I one-tricked throughout the entirety of Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3, and it got me this far. If you’re playing a crab tank weapon and your special is ready, that’s your chance to take a long shot at a Splatling or Charger position. Ultra Stamp is your best friend in rainmaker.

N: 1. Find a group of like minded people to play with. Whether you just want to play the game for fun, or improve and dip your toes into the comp scene it’s a good idea to find a group of people to play with. By having similar goals/aspirations you’ll be able to push each other in the right direction and support each other, as well as become good friends a lot of the time!

2. Make practice deliberate. Practice is all well and good, but having a goal in mind can make you improve certain aspects much faster. For example, say you feel you tend to struggle when it comes to retaking Splat Zones, next time you see it in X rank try to focus on that. If you’re still feeling lost it can be a good idea to watch better players on YouTube and watching their videos and seeing how they play!

3. With how fast paced Splatoon 3 can be, a really important skill to develop is foresight, being able to anticipate what’s going to happen next in the game. You won’t be able to do this all the time, but it’s definitely something that can make or break games. How many times have you lost a game because the other teams trizooka getting a double out of nowhere! For example if the enemy team has a regular Splattershot and they’ve been alive for a little bit, chances are they’re close to their Trizooka, so be prepared!

For the main interview with the 2023 Splatoon 3 AU/NZ Champions, grab the August/September 2024 'Space Is The Place' issue, out now!