Some Western Splatoon Players Would Prefer Not To Compete With Japan

Bad idea. Keep it global, and if you lose, just get better at it. Everybody in the game has the exact same lag advantage and disadvantage. Fragmentation because you're too obsessed with winning is the last thing anyone needs.

Frequently, the majority of players online are Japanese. Indeed, I suspect that without them it would often be nigh-impossible to find a ranked match. And this "lag advantage" thing just sounds like nonsense.

I do believe that japanese people experience a lot less lag (probably something to do with servers) which gives them advantage over other players. However I still don't mind playing with them.

I play with Japanese players all the time and when there's no connc. issues its fine. i always get a decent team and its great. If you suck then get better imo. im easily about to hit A+ rank soon because of jpnz players. Whereas when i play with other westerners I struggle very much to get a decent team at all.

I'm not sure if I understand it right, but doesn't lag work both ways? I mean if I don't see player x coming then in the opposite situation he wouldn't see me coming either?

What a bunch of whiny losers.

I eventually gave up playing Splatoon just because I could never stay connected to a server. Since launch I have managed to successfully play one round online, and that was it.

The Japanese players are not that good. You can easily win.
But the problem is that the experience often is laggy - for both sides. Many times I die and a couple of seconds later the Japanese player also dies because of me. Both sides have the same laggy experience - which is not good at all.
Except someone uses a lag switch thing.

@erv Just give the player the option to choose. It is that easy.
Regional, Europe + NA or Global

Well I do find Japanese Splatoon players to be generally quite tough, and I seem to be losing to them more than I do when playing against Western players... However I doubt this is due to any lag advantage. In fact I've never experienced any noticeable lag at all.

I hope they don't do this. Without being able to play with my friends in the Americas I'd have stopped playing a long time ago.

I can say I only encounter a few which I would consider untouchable Pro Japanese players and generally it's evenly matched and fair, so please let's stick to the Europe / Japan region! The only issue I have is when people are obviously grinding and don't contribute much, if at all, to matches. They will be just hanging around waiting and spamming the 'To Me' option or constantly pressing the Squid button.... so annoying when you are trying to enjoy matches!

I saw this somewhere. An example of what the lag can be. I don't know how it is at the other end but it certainly is bad in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6ZOU7XBD_c

In my many many hours of playing Splatoon with folks from all over the world, I can think of only one isolated incident where I perceived any lag giving advantage to another player. Not an issue for me at all.

Yeah, no. Personally I haven't had any lag issues except on rare occasions and even then I'm not positive I was playing with Japanese players. I also never have a harder time against them compared to American and European players. There's always some that are really good, but that also applies to European and American players so it's no big sweat really.

I'm in the UK, so pretty darn far away from the Japanese folks I tend to be playing ranked mode with, and I don't notice any real lag issues. Heck, connections tend to be worse during the region-locked Splatfests, although that's presumably due to how many players they attract.

I don't think even optional regional servers are a good idea because that's still fragmenting the playerbase, which is a significant concern when you need eight people to do anything.

The problem is that they have smaller pings because the servers are in their region. ping in the hundreds is a very big advantage in online play, especially shooters.

I've played Splatoon nonstop since I got it just before the August update. They are simply better than me, I've never had any problems online, this sounds like people making excuses...

TLDR: Some Western players don't want to play against players better than them.

@Zyrac I'm able to quickly find ranked matches when the japanese are stuck in splatfest, so I don't think that's a problem. But I don't really have a problem with playing with japanese players. The only times I have really bad lag or connection issues is during splatfests, and that's regional.

Someone's been drinking from the dead sea...

Japanese players can really be a pain in the ass a lot of times, and I mean that in a good way. Many of them are just really good at playing the game, and I've gotten enraged by that many times. It's a natural reaction in a game that's very competitive, I guess. It's not the lag that's really their advantage. However, I really wouldn't want them on their own servers because, for one, they make up majority of the players. I rarely have difficulties joining any type of match because, at any point in time, there are Japanese players playing the game. I live near Japan, though.

You know what I want Nintendo do instead? Add Japanese keyboard to North American Wii U.

Never found them to be any better or worse at playing really... but when the majority of matches I have (ones that don't collapse into mysterious instability anyway) are with 6 or 7 Japan players the lag can't be good for anyone.

Especially when you can get killed by the person you just killed up to 5 seconds after they just exploded.

I've wanted regional matchmaking since day 1. Bloody stupid thing not to have in a game these days anyway.

I beat people from Japan all the time. I have not noticed anything odd.

I get home late at night since I have the swing shift at work and when I do I play Splatoon online. I have not had any connection problems personally and if anything playing against Japanese players (which are the only people I play against usually in the middle of the night here in Oregon) has made me a better player. I like the huge communtiy feeling to with Splatoon when I play with players around the world. During Splatfest (the most recent one was my first one) everything seemed a little dead for some reason without those players.

I'm the opposite because I prefer to play the Japanese players because when Splatfests come around, it seems to be full of lower levels, none painting people, paint your own area first, etc..

However, they should have regional mode like Mario Kart does anyway for those who's internet isn't that good/playing up. Surely that would fix half of the disconnecting issues that people talk about?

Git gut

I don't see any problem with the way things are right now. I have no trouble getting to over 1000 points in any match I play, no matter what nationality my opponents or team mates are and no matter if my team ends up winning or losing. I have rarely experienced any lag even though my connection is not the best one ans the placement of my Wii U compared to the router is not optimal.

These people need to get a grip...lag has never been an issue for me in Wales and nationality doesn't automatically make someone a better player. What next, banning Americans from Call of Duty?

Due to my messed up sleep schedule I almost always play with Japanese players and I don't really notice any problems. In fact I frequently find myself preferring the Japanese players I tend to see over the players I'm stuck with during Splatfests.

@erv well said!

Honestly I had lag matters both with japanese and not-japanese players, if anything when there is the lag then it's crazier from japan, with people getting splatted five seconds after I hitted them XD (But I underline, if and when lag happens).

Personally I levelled up my rank till reaching A+ and S while playing and even splatting Japanese people, I really see no technical/lag problem with them, if anything most of the Japanese players are incredible allies and fearsome opponents and I can't really complain about that.

People are just being racist.

I always want to play against people better than me as that's one of the best ways to learn and improve. If Splatoon matchmaking decides that's against a room full of Japanese players, bring it on! (It invariably does due to the times of day I play)

Edit: Ok, some people genuinely live in countries with poor connectivity to outside the country, but talking places like Australia and South Africa, not Europe or North America.

I don't understand where the concept came from that Japanese players are better than everyone else. It's nonsense that's based on anecdotal evidence. A regional playlist would be nice to omit any lag issues, but truth be told, I've not noticed enough connection issues (I think the first Splatfest was the only time it was really bad) for me to get up on my soapbox and demand we segregate the player base.

Also — and based entirely on my own experience with the game — the reason many people are getting trounced at the game is because they quite simply do not understand how to play the game. They get the basic concept, but fail to understand that teamwork and coordination are key. For example, the amount of clueless morons who follow you down a path you're already inking/going down at the start or those who play Tower Control/Rainmaker and suddenly stop bothering to coat as much turf as possible (kinda key when you need it help you move quickly and also to hold up the other team).

Someone will probably say it's something that could be alleviated with the inclusion of team chat, but I imagine if someone's barking at you down a mic to do something, you're not going to be inclined to listen. Sadly, it's just how it is. You're better off just forming a squad with friends and creating strategies for each map/mode.

So they complain cuz they just sucks? Ummm you play games competitively to get better so of course it'll be tough to beat Japanese player at that, just practice and get better.

@easrom nobody easily reaches A+

I've always wanted to play with people from the mother land. They'll use tricks to win, then they can teach it to me.

The amount of racism Japanese players (of all kinds of games) get is saddening.

Lol, people will complain about anything. Just deal with it, if you're getting spanked, use it as an opportunity to revisit your strategy. Splitting the servers is a terrible idea. I like that you have a variety of people around the world playing, I just wish I could see what country they are from, like in Mario Kart.

I'm not going to complain about this because I live near Japan, and Japanese players across all kinds of online games have less lag to me than other nationalities.

That said, they should just get good. The creator of Yuru Yuri got to A+99 a while back, pre-August update.

This is nonsense.... There are more japanese players that western players so you are more likely to find more higher ranked and better players. Plus I love playing games with my Japanese friends - let's try and do away with 'Region Locking'.

@erv I totally agree...........................

The technical side is absolutely stupid, Splatfests are regional! and people complain about technical issues on those all the time, separating us from the Japanese won't fix any of that crud! oh and about the argument that they're 'better'? Git Gud,

I haven't experienced any lag from playing Splatoon in the UK. I play against players from the US in the evening and Japan in the early mornings. After seeing how Ninja Gaiden online is a ghost town (and to some degree both COD games). I would rather have people to play than no one to play.

Internet lag is real(not just in this game, but any game), and the solution is not "git gud".

There's no surviving the lag by getting better player when you are already dead. You need servers for each region, or the game is not fun for all.

Git gud. That is all I got to say, I destroy Japs on Splatoon daily.

I have played splatoon with people all around the world, currently I have a 38mps fibre wireless broadband connection and have only had an handful of problems which were caused on my end. Luckily I sorted it all out now and with the recent splat fest only had 2 disconnections. Regional games could be an option but not for me thanks

The amount of ignorance as to how serves work in this thread is unreal >.< do you guys seriously not get that being further from a server = more lag? That's why games like League of Legends have regional servers.

I'm not saying that would necesarily be the best option for Splatoon, but please, try to show some understanding has to how online play actually works. Tip: there is a lot more too it than 'git gud' as a lot of people seem to be saying.

I haven't noticed that the Japanese players are particularly good. I do recall one of them sniping me straight through a wall, but I run into locals who lag, too.

On average JP players are just better. In Turf Wars, NA players generally prefer head hunting and end up costing us the match because they were camping out somewhere instead of painting. Also, any lag issues I've ever experienced are with other NA players and almost never JPs,

I have experienced lag but none as bad as depicted in this video. I also had MAJOR wifi connection issues with my Wii U for a long time. I think I've finally got them under control but I would suggest to anyone having issue to go about investigating using manual connection controls for the Wii U rather than the automatic detection.

What?! Deffo keep it global. Some western players must be rubbish! Lol

Regional servers ftw! Unless that would mean more waiting between matches, there aren't too many Wii U users you know.

I'm from Italy and basically I can play online only during Splatfest so yes, I'd like to have regional matchmaking. If anyone thinks the same please like: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHkZWGn2KQ
Here in italian: https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHkZVbFXnQ

What @Zyrac said

Um... how is it a "lag advantage" when both sides would be experiencing it? There is no advantage there.

Though, if there is lag, local severs would be better in general. That would be one less thing to play the blame game.

What utter nonsense

In a way, I think it's made me better. I've accepted that a Japanese splattershot will splat me in one shot and it may take my range blaster three blasts to splat a Japanese player. I play at night so I'm usually the only western in the lobby and, I'll admit, some matches are smoother than others. But, regional servers? IDK if it'll make things better...I've seen the strangest things when playing with my fellow Americans like during splat fest or the rare occasion when I play Saturday afternoon. Crazy teleportation and team mates disappearing are the worse. I lost 12 points during rank because 'Tyler92' dissapeared mid match and, ironically, we happened to playing against an all-Japanese team.

I have a US wiiU but I live in Korea...so basically when I play in the evenings it's 99% Japanese. I would hate it if I could only play with US players. I would be waiting forever for a match, as it would be 3 am when I'm playing in the evening...It's not like they're ALL good. Japan has noobs too.

Sounds like we need a petition - #SaveJapaneseSquids, although in fairness someone might think we're trying to stop them eating a local delicacy - Maybe #SaveJapanSquidKids instead then...

In all seriousness though, I like having people from all over the world to play against and quite frankly from my experience of playing late in the evening / early hours or first thing on a Sunday morning here in the UK, I need the Japanese Squid/Kids to make up teams...

In terms of better players - not sure, but they certainly appear to put in a lot of hours - most of the Level 40+ / S+ Rank players tend to have Japanese names.... But does that make them better or just have less of a social life - I don't know...

#SaveJapanSquidKids

Playing against Japanese players comes with Lag ..... sometimes more than a second, which makes it really hard to actually play against them and makes the match just annoying ....

I have had a few matches lately where I thought it was taking an extra hit or 2 to take players out but can't remember if they were Japanese or not. I would hope it was the same for them. Overall I've not had many problems at all. If you're in a game with 7 other Japanese players (and that happens to me a lot) and you lose then you must be the factor right? I highly doubt they're saying oh no, we got stuck with a westerner on our team. We're going to lose. I often am the best player of not second best when I'm on an all Japanese team.

I'd prefer regional servers. It isnt really about the competition but the lag. A regional option would be just that, an option for people who lag out ridiculously when playing against folks overseas. I would even like better matchmaking so lower level players dont have to spend one of their first few matches against lvl20s with high-spec gear.

Otherwise I keep getting teamed up with people overseas, my ping goes through the roof and I'm spending all my matches rubberbanding across the stage and not even seeing paint shoot from my gun. Mind you, my PS4 and XBO handle online play with folks overseas just fine.

I really don't care who I play with. The lag ends up evening out and the worst that will happen is I'll splat someone then die a few seconds later from the person who I splatted. Not a big deal

Hahahahahahahaha..........oh these people weren't joking?

Usually a sizable group of Asian players when I play and I don't notice any difference in overall skill or issues with lag.

If someone is kicking your butt.....exit and then jump back in the lobby and find someone else to kick your butt.

If I lag it usually means my connection is going to die and that seldom happens maybe 1 out of every 20 matches

There sure is a lot of whining about it...I personally think most people are just using Japanese players as a scapegoat because they did bad in their match. There are occasions where there's lag, sure, but most of the time it's not so in my experience (and certainly not more than when I'm playing with American players or someone else who isn't Japanese).

I've learned a lot from playing with Japanese players. Although I haven't been having lag issues either. As long as the eight player slots get filled, I don't mind who I play with.

Give us an option to switch between regional and world wide servers, that would've solved the problem before it even happened.

It makes sense that players closest to the servers will have the least lag and be at a very slight advantage. However, it's not big enough for me to notice when I'm playing. I'd like to play with people from all over the world so I wouldn't want to see regional servers.

No, no. no. Keep it level. There's not too many Splatoon owners in the US, anyway, so I don't feel bad when I'm the only American in the match..

Why are people saying they hope Nintendo doesn't do this? What's the big issue with offering regional servers? Nintendo would need to pony up some cash, but if it improves the game for some players then that's great.

Again. OPTION. People would still want to play against the disappearing Japanese players can have at it.

Does anyone actually know where the Splatoon servers are located?

I have never experience lag. And I have splatted hundreds, if not thousands, of Japanese players.

Even with lag advantage (which i don't notice) I still whooop em. They just need to get better.

I regularly destroy most anyone no matter where they are from, but the lag is still annoying. Japanese players especially seem like they have instant transmission (DBZ reference) jumping around me like crazy. And often there are splats where I just splatted them and 3 seconds later I'll just splat with no one around with the camera focusing on the recently splatted enemy.

Basically what happens is their character has the appearance of super speed on our side of things and our characters stand still like a tree while they get a free splat on their side. I also question that they are better. Obviously there are always those that have no life outside of gaming and can play and hone their skills all day long, every day, but outside of those players who I'll willing go toe to toe with, they suck just as bad as any other player I splat.

That said, the last 2 months since I bought the LAN adapter, issues have been at a minimum, japanese lag still being and issue though improved.

I've noticed getting splatted by someone 5 sec's after splatting that player has become more common.

Yeah and I'm one of them...whenever I play against a Japanese team there's a 99% chance of me getting my ass kicked. I may be a bad player, but matches with and against non-Japanese players are pretty chill and not rage-inducing

Westerner here and I'd be glad if they switched to regional in the match making setup. If no one can be found within 30 seconds, open it up to global. I feel all I'm getting now is Japanese players in matches. Would be nice if the pendulum swung back the other way a bit.

@Gekko That's an old video. That kind of lag has been fixed since the 2.0.0 update. Players with bad connections are now disconnected.

I don't have connectivities issues with Splatoon. Japanese ppl are not better or worse players than any other ppl.

BTW, terrible that NintendoLife link to a Kotaku article as "news". Kotaku is just filled with click-bait articles, and NintendoLife wants to go that way as well?

As many has commented already, lag goes both ways since Splatoon is P2P. The biggest problems I have had with lagging players has been with the (regional) Splatfests prior to the 2.0.0 update.

Most matches I play (rank A/S players, mostly level 35+ players) usually are 6-7 out of 8 Japanese players. I think the reason why many Japanese players are good is because they play the game a lot.

Had to log in to let people know: the lag advantage does exist. I've played about 300 hours of this game, more than half of it with nearly exclusive or exclusively Japanese players, and the lag advantage (or lagvantage) is horribly real. I've lost count of how many times I've died because someone hit me when they weren't anywhere near me, or how many times I've killed someone only to watch them kill me after death. It's not a matter of "getting good", as some have postulated. This is clearly a case of those being closer to the home servers having the advantage. There are enough American players to where I know there can be region servers. Nintendo just isn't trying. That's abundantly clear by the way they create their ranked servers. How many times, as an A, are they going to put me in an S server? Nintendo really needs to step their game up. All-lo hell is real, friends.

They should give the option to let you choose to play against people from just your region or worldwode, that way they don't remove any functionality for those who like it and appease those who don't. Plenty of Nintendo games with online in the past have offered that option.

I don't have anything against the option to play on regional servers being added to the current global selection.

However, I'd bet money that most of these people have one of two problems, neither of them related to global servers. One problem would be their own internet connection; I moved shortly after the release of Splatoon, and I went from a shaky internet connection with lots of disconnects and lag to a strong, clear signal that hardly ever gives me a problem. I live on the east coast of the U.S., almost entirely across the world from these folks.

The second problem is the player's skill. Again, I play with a pretty good internet connection, but I've got no fear of any player going into a fight, Japanese or otherwise. There have been lots of times where we get crushed in a fight by Japanese folks, or that we've burned them up. It depends on your teamwork and your own skill.

Sore losers don't just play Call of Duty; some of them play Nintendo, and I'm pretty sure they're part of the reason we don't have voice chat.

I wouldn't mind if they rated your connection and put the weakest together...

As for the lag, I've had it both ways, judging by my victims on several occassions I have received a lag boost, equally I have on occassion suffered. It's why I don't play ranked very often, the losses count in that mode, while in regular it really doesn't matter so much, I just play and enjoy.
When I see japanese names I tend to wait for the inevitable disconnect ( usually in the last few seconds or just before the results screen) so I've not been playing so much recently - a lot of those japanese players go to bed late/wake up super early, so there's only the smallest of Japanese free hours available!

Oh and on their general skill level, I hadn't noticed, in fact I find them to be weaker... although in the afternoon the quality of seemingly western players seems to drop a lot, not sure why... maybe we are morning people?

I live in Japan. (Not Japanese, though... My name is in Japanese). I have experienced these problems here.. Most Japanese people have fiber optic connections so I suppose there is a slight advantage. Honestly, though, the game is more interesting if it is global. I think that is the trend that gaming needs to take, and will enrich gaming. I hope Nintendo penetrates the Chinese, Indian and other markets in the future. If you don't like it, get an Xbox.

Good grief people. GET GOOD.

I'm not even good, but I know it's because I can't devote time to the game. Japanese players have great quick Twitch ability - I can kill most American Tetris players but not Japanese players.

Stop being such whiny babies and take your lumps like a man.

Why not asking to have a better game instead of asking the players get better?

Getting better at the game does NOT fix the lag, and does NOT help either if you are already dead in your opponents view before you even see them.

There have been many Nintendo games, that have the option for regional and world wide games. Why do you think they had the option?

The games with regional servers are MUCH more enjoyable. Can I please have a regional server?

I suppose a good compromise for Nintendo would be to give the player a choice to play regionally or worldwide (like MK8). That way when the people who are complaining join regional servers and continue to lose, only one conclusion remains to be drawn (yeah I said it)

I don't think the problem is just with Splatoon,but with Mario Kart 8 also. Some can be mean in MK8. They'll team up against you if you're beating them or they just fire hop the whole race where its impossible to catch up. I kinda stopped playing MK8 online just because of them.....

The funny thing is that I have less connection issues when I play with Japanese players than I do with Western players. Some people like to complain about anything lol. Also I don't really see how this is news, this is more opinion than it is fact.

Uhhhh, yeah it should stay global. What did that one guy say? Crap, it's super relevant...
OH YEAH
GIT GOOD

<_< This is such a shock.

I'm a Canadian living in SoKo and I haven't had any connection problems but Korea has the best internet in the world. I usually play after work and its all Japanese players. For a white boy, I hold my own for sure but they are often first to level up. I have been seeing Japanese players in the 40's for like a week already. I'm level 32 and that is primarily due to the fact I consistently get awesome ranked matches. Turf war is impossible to level up now. If you get a run of bad teams, you can play for hours and get likes 50 points towards a level and now it takes hundreds of points to level up. Regional servers wouldn't affect me as I would still play with the Japanese players but perhaps it would be something to investigate. Personally, I love playing with the best players.

Well i have definitely noticed some annoying things, like dying AFTER i have splatted a bad guy, even when i start to shot before and hitting them. This means that your reaction time/aim doesn't count at all, like you react faster and hits him/her several time and you still end up dead. Very annoying and happens too often.

I just hate how the Japanese players like to jump up and down all the time. Something about that strategy annoys the piss out of me for some reason. I guess it just looks stupid.

@Zyrac I play at all times of day, but mostly 12:00 AM to 03:00 AM. I agree, it would be hard to find matches without this population. No complaints for lag; I actually hold my own fairly well. But I would still like a regional option. I want to send friend requests & make more on-line friends. But the language barrier is an issue.

I don't care who I'm playing with or against anymore. This game is virtually unplayable for me now. Can't stay connected online anymore at all. I can finish a game maybe 5% of the time. It was not like this for me around the game's launch. Back to one-player games.

@grumblebuzzz From ranged battle this gives your weapon more distance. At close range this helps them from getting stuck & makes them harder to hit. Also (close up) in a clinch, they tend to point gun down & shoot your feet. Also, if you notice, their jumps are sometimes higher or lower, depending on their weapon & distance from you.

@Yoshi_Prime Nope, there is no lag advantage because it's a peer to peer connection like Smash Bros. So the lag goes both ways - anytime you think they have some sort of lag advantage, they most likely think the same about you.

@IceClimbers Let's say there's a game with seven Japanese players, and one U.S. player, that player being me. This is a very common occurrence. If I have my own lagvantage due to how far away I am, then I would indeed have an advantage. However, that means simultaneously the entire opposing team has the same advantage, which means not only am I at a disadvantage overall, but my team is as well for having me on there. There are so many American players, more than people realize. There are more than enough to have a region-specific server to avoid these issues. Nobody has to be okay with this. We deserve better.

I haven't really noticed to much lag since I changed to a wired connection like 4 days ago. Pretty sure the lag goes both ways though, so I think it's fair. However it is annoying when they appear randomly or swim in other teams ink. Lol

I had no lag or online issues tell splatfest came, then my wifi crapped out tell i reset my router by then splatfest was over...

@Yoshi_Prime Region specific servers aren't going to fix the issue. Instead of being at a supposed disadvantage against Japanese players, you're going to be at a disadvantage against other American players. Therefore it isn't any better.

We do have a regional server option that comes and goes...it's called Splatfest!
I couldn't tell a significant difference in Splatfest vs world wide though

Japanese players have no lag advantage that I could tell. They're just good at jumping and shooting

@IceClimbers Considering that there are a significant number of American players, it would be a good investment to have American servers. With that, there would not be this disadvantage in an overall sense. It would take actual effort, which I know is just so tough.

S'been fine for me. Stop bitpchin, weaklings.

Nah it's fine, if it's a real issue look in to stupid crap like lag compensation but when I kill or get killed it's always been in order.

@Yorumi Another thing on the internet that needs to stop is people taking jokes too seriously.

I have exceptionally good internet by United States standards and I linger in the S/S+ rankings on Splatoon, and feel comfortable saying there's definitely lag when dealing with a statistically significant number Eastern players.

It's only really noticeable in a few situations, though. Things like a direct one-hit KO connecting (as indicated by the sound) only to be killed by a delay-activated Kraken of a clearly not-KO'd player a second later, the visible sniper line not ever visibly being anywhere near me prior to being splatted, or someone somehow having time to drop an ink mine as they land when people are shooting directly at the landing point with high-impact weapons. I can say I've robbed Eastern players with similar favorable shenanigans on more than one occasion.

That being said, I generally prefer playing against Eastern players, as the matches are usually fast-paced and brutal compared to western lobbies, and I rarely don't have a fun time. Most of the lag-related shortcomings also have workarounds, like just never, ever staying out in the open when there's a good sniper on the field in position, generally use weapons that have some form of splash damage, and approach people that may have a Kraken ready/nearly ready with extreme caution.

Never experienced this lag advantage. But western Smash players are far better than the Japanese ones, so let them have this one thing.

But I do think we need regional servers as an option, not a requirement.

I'm hoping for an option to play with just people from your region. Every time I go up against these guys, it seems near impossible to even hit them.

At risk of sounding as racist as this article also makes the west sound, the Japanese are best at ALL games, get over it. If you don't want to go against Japan because they're better than you, you need to either get better or stop playing online, simple.

@Yorumi Not for you, no. I wasn't trying to tickle your fancy.

I love being matched up with Japanese players. It's always fun to be paired up with a group of Westerners vs. a Japanese group. Or being the sole Westerner in a room full of Japanese players and dragging your team to victory. I generally hold my own if not outright stomp most Japanese players, so I don't see the skill problem. I'd also argue against the skill advantage as the average Japanese player seems to be below par. Though I agree the select few at the top are monsters. Even if they are ferocious, I'd hate to miss out on all the fun worldwide dynamics and overall community.

Anyway, lag is a fact of life in online gaming, if you can't deal with it you should stick to offline. This is almost certainly a case of a few loud detractors pushing the narrative. Get a wired connection and just accept there is always going to be some variance in an online setting. Competition is not always fair.

where's the counter petition? keep it global, it's helping me reas hiragana/katakana

but yeah, the following opinion applies to a group of "western" players, i only saw them on the decepticon side of the last splatfest, but you see them occassionally (mostly in turf war) and they're obvious: they have vulgar names, do "squid humping" a lot, mostly use the aerospray rg, rack up kills more so than scores, and cannot stand to lose - so much so in fact they don't play ranked (because they can't accept having no control over other players on their team). they tend to be masogonistic and immature. they consider themselves hardcore, when in fact they're glutonous and hedonistic, having no desire to realise the finer points of mastering a style and respecting the art of the game. they also initially tended to complain alot about motion controls, and still won't step out of their comfort zone on thumbsticks. oh, and you know they often rage.

these are the guys that nintendo has avoided for so many generations of IP, save for in smash communities, and they're the price we pay to be a part of a shooter community. they here to stay, and we have to learn to suffer fools gladly, but i for sure as one won't let them get anything changed in this game.

i want that counter petition.

I've definitely noticed the difference when I'm in a room hosted by a Japanese player that it seems like the Japanese players just kill me before I even have a chance to exchange kills. The only thing that makes sense is that they must have like a third of a second advantage due to lag, because usually it's pretty much a given that my Kraken roller is going to kill anyone within range or at least exchange kills, but I'll go to jump splat and be dead before I can even unleash it to have a chance to exchange kills.

I haven't had any issues with lag or sucking when playing against Japanese. I love the fact the game is global and literally for everyone.

Ummmm... I don't notice it often; In fact, I notice it more during splatfests which are region based. I do experience lag but it's not often. It's not as bad as say Destiny lag. While these might be valid complaints...meh, I'm not having issues winning.

I have fibre optic Internet but I notice a huge difference when I'm playing a game full of Japanese players. Literally they end up teleworking around my screen and the next thing I know I'm dead lol. My friend struggles to finish a game against Japanese players and he's an A+ rank. It does impact the game play massively, I do think that an option to play worldwide or your region would be good.

@starman292 I agree. Mario Kart 8 has the function why not splatoon too?

LOLOLOLOLOLOLO! BUNCH OF WHINERS!

I am not amazing at Splatoon in any forms. Yet I often play where 7 others are Japanese (or so) because of timezone. And still I manage the same than with western people. Sometimes it's all crap and those insane Japanese just kick my ass and then sometimes I kick their asses...

Tho my connection is also kickass, even get kicked out of servers now and then.

BOOHOO! People just cannot stand losing and make excuses. With MK8, I always play global.

I can beat Japanese people. Just got to play good. I've had matches where it's nothing but Japanese with me being the odd duck. Do well, the Japanese may even work with you good in getting the job done.

I have optic fiber connection and dont have lagging issues but I would like to play with players from my area!!

Trust me, it's just them casual westerners complaining and they should git gud (i'm not even joking here) I'm from london and i've been to go from A- to S rank at least 3 times. If can achieve that then anyone can.

Although japanese players have an awkward sense of no timezone limitation so they probably play a lot more than us (heck some of them aren't even japanese and they're more or less on the same level as us, just that they have more higher level players in general).

Japanese players don't bother me at all. I love the fact I'm playing people from all over the world. What bothers me are weak teammates who think Turf War and Splat Zones are all about body counts and hiding in corners and ambushing people.

Wait, gamers are crying like babies on the internet for no reason?

Really obvious thing missed in the call for regional matchmaking. It doesn't help Europe because the whole of Russia, South Africa and Australia are bundled into Europe. Now the former two are very minor but from my experience of MK8 (which tells you countries) were about 10% Australian.

@jariw That patch makes the game unplayable if you are on a connection with less than 0.6MBs upstream...which is like most ADSL connections in the UK. I have friends who can't play the game now because of that (they can't upgrade their connection either as nobody is laying fiber or cable down in rural England) and I myself had the game unplayable for a few weeks (NOE are still useless here and their support has yet to figure out the connection speed cause). It also ruins the chances of the team whose lost a player winning.

More on that point, the nature of upstream tending to choke downstream can also amplify lag issues. Plus many people have to share connections which also doesn't help.

tl;dr the games netcode is very bandwidth intensive because it isn't a problem in Japan. This can lead to increases in latency related issues and also limits who can make it playable. Finally, the fact the V1 netcode was used in the recent testfire could almost be viewed as false advertising (if someone with an ADSL connection was on the fence about the game found that worked well then decided to buy the game to be treated with "the connection is unstable" all the time).

Japanese players always beat me at Pokemon. So I resolve to get better.

I love playing with players across the world, particularly those from Japan. It's such a great way to have connectivity between players across the world on a Nintendo console. I have never experienced any lag or "connectivity issues" when playing with players from Japan.

@Zyrac If there are indeed servers running the game in Japan, players there would have the advantage. I have seen a time or two where I clearly splat some other player with my roller and then the next thing I know I'm dead and they are still alive. It's not a common occurrence, but when fractions of a second can be the difference between you and the other player, the other player will always win.

I rarely experience lag where I am in Australia, but I won't speak for others.

What I am getting tired of though, is being the only English name in battles. I love playing against people around the world, but it gets tiring when the majority of the time I'm only grouped with Japanese players.

The only thing that I dislike about playing with Japanese players is simply not understanding the language and not being able to read into their personality through their handle. It's just a bunch of Japanese characters I don't understand. But then again, there are a lot of western gamers with really unoriginal and uninteresting handles. I just appreciate the more creative names.

If it makes the overall experience better, then sure go right ahead. In all honesty, the Splatoon developers have really been paying attention to the players, so if the player base is really vocal then I wouldn't be surprised if the developers complied.

I use AT&T U-Verse with a bandwith I share with my entire family and I still don't lag against Japanese players. I don't know what people are whining about. I hate saying this because my cousin's part of the mainstream gaming crowd, but seriously, stop whining and git gud.

Addendum: Stay briny, Squiddies.

That's ridiculous, the Japanese players could just as well experience lags because of the distance and claim the Europeans have a so-called "lag advantage". But I don't hear any Japanese complaining - maybe because of their humble culture or because of their superior skills in Splatoon.
I never experienced more lags with Japanese players than with others (not much lag in general).
I think it has solely to do with the fact that many Japanese players are just better in Splatoon.
So I call boolean on this one.

I just want to be able to know the name of the person I'm cussing out or praising.
Come on, Mario Kart has region options.

Yeah, I've been on both sides of the lag divide. And I can tell before a match how good my connection is to the host. The host, by the way, is the one at the top of the list while waiting for the match to start. I'm fairly certain that if they disconnect mid-match then it disconnects everyone. (while its still waiting the host isn't actually set, so a host change won't matter unless it tries to happen after 'Battle Time!' appears in the top left of the screen)

Its actually really easy to tell if you have a lag advantage or not. The closer to the top you are, the better the advantage. (Now how much an advantage is debatable, though I can say I've been able to be sandwiched between other japanese-named players on the list, the ones below never stay more than one match because I happen to curbstomp them, I wonder why?) [I use the aerospray mg in turf and the .52 gal... whichever version has echolocator in ranked, man work's been draining today...]

I would like an option for regional myself, though I'd like to be able to choose the region. Basically, if you want, you could play global or even in a region not yours, but if you go into another region that isn't yours, you get automatically passed over in being match host, so others playing in their own regions should, by comparison, have stabler connections than you.

Edit: I realized some people are wondering about the supposed advantage it would provide. Just from what I can tell, it does these:

1) Slows down the application of ink over turf. Doesn't sound like much but it means that, among other things, you can't swim at full speed until it applies, effectively slowing your movement and killing any real chance at escaping a bad situation, and prevents you from healing damage you might have otherwise survived by hiding momentarily in your own ink. Also stealth is much more difficult, and preventing opponents from escaping is nigh impossible without extreme planning and/or range.

2) Damage Sent From Hit Registration (DSFHR for short, gotta use it again in a bit) 'seems to be' compacted all at once for those suffering from lag, meaning its actually quite possible to get splatted from shots that wouldn't actually kill you because partial (or if the lag is bad enough full!) healing would have saved you. Conversely, DSFHR 'seems to be' spread out over longer periods, meaning you'll more likely heal off enough to survive shots that should have killed you. (If it wasn't obvious, I haven't fully tested this myself, just been watching and playing and looking at the storied accounts of other players)

There may be other benefits/penalties, but they seem to be the main ones from my observations.

If you're experiencing lag get your internet checked out. Seriously I was getting bad lag and then after the update having trouble connecting at all. I called Sky and they sent someone to fix it and now I have no problem playing against anyone, Japanese or otherwise.

@MegaWatts that's been my finding as well though I've not played for a couple of months and really need to pick it up again. You get a team that knows to paint where painting is needed and not just go for the enemy side and you do well. You get with people that never look at the map or use their specials tactically and it turns out badly.

Might want to ask if they'd like some cheeze to go with that whine!

Boo-hoo. Get better, suck less.

Lag dis/advantage exists in all online games. I have no idea what the pings are in Splatoon, but they will make a difference.

However the bigger issue is that I suspect that Japanese players at B are better than European players at B, because the ranking is more competitive in Japan. I certainly notice this in the B zone where I play. Perhaps it evens out at the higher ranks?

Absolutely! Put them in Smash too!
I'm tired of fighting laggy Japanese players, or having Japanese players file into my For Glory and leave the moment they see me.

This is silly. I play with japanese regularly as most Europeans probably do. I have never had any problems with the lag.

In fact I have only had few disconnects throughout quite a lot of playing as well.

This is people being sore losers

I'm actually fine playing with the Japanese except if I'm playing Pokémon

I think the people sending in these complaints are likely the ones with the poor internet connection. I use a wired connection for my Wii U and I never have any lag, even when playing in a room where everyone is a Japanese player.

@vitalemrecords Once I got past B, A+ was a breeze.

playing from France and never experienced any kind of lag situation. keep the settings as they are, i'm happy to find opponents at any time of the night

Plenty of people are better than me but I would never blame it on lag. My only frustration is that none of my friends with a Wii U play Splatoon; so I am always playing with random people. I am only level 10 but I'm usually top 1 or 2 in scoring for my team, even when the rest of the team is made up of level 20 or higher players.

I can honestly say that i get it, the lag is real folks. Every time i noticed some Japanese players in a game id get killed in weird fashions. I get splatted and i didnt see anything on screen like grenades or the late inkzooka. I dont even see the trail sometimes til its already hit me its crazy. I dont want any global restrictions this is the stuff we've fought against peeps.

@Monado_III No it wasn't.

@Gameday or getting splatted after like 3 long seconds of being behind a corner? Yup - that is some lag. You can feel it as soon as a match starts.

@vitalemrecords Yessir, its call of duty all over ha. Around the corner and you die, late kills, late deaths, all thee above.

@erv +1

I'm not complaining about only having global matchmaking, but regional matchmaking would be welcome.

I'm surprised that 90% of the comments don't realize how important server location is. The closer you live to a server (Japan) the more advantage you have. This advantage is huge across oceans. It means the player living near the server is sending and receiving data from the server MUCH quicker then someone across the world. Many competitive games move their servers to make this more fair, for example League of Legends moved their servers from Los Angelas to Chicago which gave people on the East Coast US a better connection. Previously West Coast players were dominating because East Coast pings were 3-5 times higher to the server.

People who think that this isn't a problem, don't understand how client-host connectivity works, and probably aren't at a high enough level of play to see how Nintendo's netcode causes terrible issues with online play.

With the Splatoon online community as it is right now, at the higher ranks, the chances of having a lobby filled with Japanese players is significantly increased (probably because Splatoon is much more popular in Japan than in most of the West). At S-rank and above, depending on the time of day, you're very likely to get matched with 7 other Japanese players.

Why is this a problem? The way that the client host model works is that a single player out of the 8 will be selected by Nintendo's servers to "host" the session, which means that the host player's connection is used for managing the synchronizations between all of the players in the match. The host player will always see the game in real-time, while the other players will always be slightly behind due to the time it takes for their in-game actions to reach the host players connection (that time is known as the ping).

So when you play a lobby filled with Japanese players, there's a 7/8 chance that one of the Japanese players will be the host of the match. The Japanese host player sees the game in real-time, while all of the other Japanese players will be slightly behind the host, though their pings will be low because they're all physically close to the host location, since they're all living in Japan.

But what about you? You're halfway across the world, so your ping physically takes a lot longer to reach the host. That means you'll always be behind EVERYONE in the match.

This causes all sorts of problems, such as your shots not hitting, your shots hitting but the opponent not actually dying (you hear the KO sound, but magically, they're still there), players speeding up/teleporting, and overall unexpected sudden deaths and unintended misses. Having played thousands of matches of Splatoon, I can assure you that I've experienced all of these. Because the game runs in a way to maintain the illusion of well-greased connectivity, you might not even realize the subtle problems occurring while you're playing, unless you're actually thinking about the existence of these ping issues in the first place.

This is an enormous disadvantage in online play with Japanese players, because it means that more often than not, you're the dead weight of whatever team you're on, because your opponents will almost always be able to react before you, and because your actions will almost always be behind your opponents.

On the flip side, if you hit that 1/8 chance of becoming the host of the match, you'll suddenly be in a better position than everyone else, because all of the Japanese players will now have the longer ping. Have you ever had a fantastic match where you felt like you were on fire and all your shots were hitting their target? Where the enemy didn't seem to be intelligently reacting to your decisions, and you felt like you were weaving in and out of battle like a boss? ...Then more likely than not, you were just the host of the match, and everyone else was at a ping disadvantage.

That's why regional-matchmaking is a thing --- to help prevent lopsided ping averages on teams. It has nothing to do with Japanese players being better, and everything to do with making a level competitive playing field.