And now the big Splatoon 3 "Grand Festival" is over. I spent most of my weekend playing Splatoon because I really wanted to make the most of this big final event, though I still made time to go places and hang out with people.

I had a really great time!! It really felt like I took part in a huge celebration, especially on that Tricolor stage. I hope that Tricolor battles will continue to be available in some fashion, even if only in private battles.

During this last Splatfest I think I actually managed to figure out some sort of actual strategy for Tricolor, and I guess it's kind of funny to wait all the way until now to do that but I managed to win a whole bunch and that was fun.

It took until this last Splatfest for me to actually start taking into account that, when I'm on an attacking team in Tricolor battles, I do win if the other attacking team wins, so it's often advantageous to help them win by highest percent instead of trying to compete. Several times I was right by the Ultra Signal and let the other attacking team just go and take it because one team being in control of two puts the defending team in a worse position than if each team gets one.

I think another aspect that worked in my favor is that my main (Big Swig Roller Express) is extremely good at painting the ground, and I can single-handedly cover a big portion of the map if no one stops me, which they won't if they're too busy caring about the Ultra Signal or if I can get away, and I've been getting good at bailing out of situations really fast. Multiple times on the defending team I think I was able to effectively cancel out a "Sprinkler of Doom" all by myself by just continually repainting the ground underneath one.

I played a ton and I kept joking about how I was going to get myself to a Ruler+10 title, which did not happen. I did get to Ruler+9 though!! I could've gotten to +10 with a few more hours but I already probably played wayyy too much haha.