---
title: "The Splatoon 3 North American League News Drop!"
date: 2025-09-04
author:
   - name: YELLOW
     link: https://sendou.ink/u/great-hero-yellow
---

Article originally posted at [https://www.splatoonstronghold.com/news/the-splatoon-3-north-american-league-news-drop](https://www.splatoonstronghold.com/news/the-splatoon-3-north-american-league-news-drop). 

# **The Splatoon 3 North American League News Drop\!**

After teasing the Splatoon 3 North American League over two months ago, Nintendo finally released the details on September 2, 2025\. They dropped a heavy load of information about the League, so let’s break into what their announcement trailer did—and didn’t—say. 

## **What *is* The Splatoon 3 North American League?** 

The Splatoon 3 North American League encompasses more than just competitive tournaments on Saturdays. It is a ten-week, weekend-long event that includes The Splatoon 3 North American League Show hosted on Fridays, the League events on Saturdays, and The Splatoon 3 North American League Sunday Scrim (on Sundays). The event will conclude with The Splatoon 3 North American League Playoffs in mid-December. More on those below, but for now, let’s focus on the meat of the event: the tournament. 

The tournament season will start on September 20, 2025, and end on November 22, 2025\. It is divided into two seasons: the Preseason, and the Regular Season. The first two weeks are the Preseason; any scores accumulated during the Preseason will NOT count towards a team’s final scoring for The Splatoon 3 North American League Playoffs. 

The eight consecutive weeks following the Preseason will be how teams earn scores to qualify for the Playoffs. A team’s five highest scores from the Regular Season will be the determiner for their Season Standings. Registration for the events will be on Battlefy and opened on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, and will last up until each event’s starting time. For example, to be able to play in Event \#1 on September 20 (the first Preseason event), you have between 9 AM Pacific Time on September 2 and 12 PM Pacific Time on September 20 to register. If you’d like to play in Event \#2 on September 27 (the second Preseason event), the registration period is between 9 AM PT on September 2 and ends at 12 PM PT on September 27\. 

Teams can be made of four players plus one substitute player, and no player registered on a team can also be on another team. Each League event (including the Preseason) will be a Ladder round, so teams will be playing against others near their own skill level. The Ladder rounds are expected to begin at 12 PM PT and end at 3 PM PT; sets will be played in a Best of Three (Bo3). Each week, the top eight teams from the Ladder round will move forward into a Best of Five (Bo5) double-elimination bracket (Top 8\) for a chance to earn even more points towards their season score. The League rules state that a team must play at least five matches in order to qualify for the Top 8 of the week. Top 8 will be streamed, with an anticipated start date of 4 PM PT\! 

We’ve mentioned scores and points a few times already; here’s the deal with that: 

<img width="1000" height="569" alt="pointsa" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2e92b4b0-7662-4a21-83ba-0b7170c6727c" />

*A team will earn points based on their Event placement which contribute toward their Season Standing. Image from Nintendo of America’s “Splatoon 3 North American League \- Announcement” video on YouTube.* 

Every participating team will earn points based on their placement in both the Ladder round and Top 8, creating their Season Standings. These Season Standings will be based on a team’s highest scores starting with Event \#3 (Regular Season Week 1). The eight teams with the highest Season Standings after Event \#10 (Regular Season Week 8\) will qualify for the Playoffs\! 

The Splatoon 3 North American League Playoffs will be held on December 13 and 14, 2025\. The two day event will see the top eight teams from the Regular Season go head-to-head in another Bo5 double-elimination bracket. Only the first eight matches of the Playoffs will be played on Day 1; the rest will be on Day 2\. 

### **Tournament Ruleset**

Nintendo has released a 13-page PDF containing the entire ruleset for The Splatoon 3 North American League, which covers the Preseason, Regular Season, and Playoffs. While we won’t cover everything that the rulebook does, we will share some highlights. 

**All** Splatoon 3 modes are included in the League: Tower Control, Clam Blitz, Rainmaker, Splat Zones, and yes, Turf War\! Below is the list of eligible maps for every League event: 

* Hagglefish Market  
* Undertow Spillway  
* Museum d’Alfonsino  
* Inkblot Art Academy  
* MakoMart  
* Um’ami Ruins  
* Barnacle & Dime  
* Humpback Pump Track  
* Crableg Capital  
* Urchin Underpass

During the Ladder round, a coin flip in Battlefy’s Match Chat will determine which team picks the mode for the first match in the set. The loser of the coin flip will pick the map. However, during the Top 8 and Playoffs, the team who has the higher seed will choose the mode for the first match, with the lower-seed team choosing the map. Between all three League seasons, after the first match, the winning team picks the mode for the next game, and the losing team picks the map. Each mode and each stage can only be picked once per set. 

Disconnects will incur a rematch on the same map and mode, with one rematch being allowed per set. If a disconnect happens within the first 60 seconds of a game, then the match is eligible to be replayed. But if a player disconnects after 60 seconds pass, then the match has to be played without the DC’d player. 

For a full treasure trove of rulesets, FAQs, support, and more for the League events, you can check out the event’s Battlefy page: [https://battlefy.com/nintendovs/splatoon3-north-american-league/rules](https://battlefy.com/nintendovs/splatoon3-north-american-league/rules). 

## **The Splatoon 3 North American League Show**

The Splatoon 3 North American League Show will be hosted at 10 AM PT every Friday preceding a Saturday League event. The first League Show will be on September 19, 2025\! These shows will feature “core community members” discussing the previous week’s matches, the upcoming League matches, share advice, interviews with players, and even have some silly games for the hosts to partake in. 

The fact that Nintendo’s official 2025 Splatoon 3 North American League informational trailer outright stated that there will be panels with community members–in addition to featuring a handful of them delivering this information to us\!–is an incredibly exciting collaboration for the scene. Well-known community figures have been announcing their involvement with the League—names like ProChara, Vicvillon, Popgun, Kbot, and Cyren are just a few who you can expect to see combining with Nintendo on this major event. 

## **The Splatoon 3 North American League Sunday Scrim**

The Splatoon 3 North American League Sunday Scrim, like the League Show, will accompany the League events; the Sunday Scrim will follow Saturday’s tournament sets with a more relaxed, casual competitive environment. The first Sunday Scrim will be on September 21, 2025, and events are set to begin each day at 12 PM PT. It seems to be centered on Salmon Run rather than ranked modes and Turf War. There is not an official Nintendo PDF stating the guidelines for the Sunday Scrim, but we do know these facts: 

Anyone can compete in the Sunday Scrim, across any skill level. Whether you want to play solo, as a duo, a trio, or a quad\! Participating does require registering beforehand, though registration for this event is hosted in the Nintendo Switch Online app, under SplatNet 3’s Tournaments button, rather than on Battlefy. 

Although there will be a competitive aspect to this event, with the goal being to earn the top scores weekly, the Sunday Scrim will not contribute to any League scoring. 

<img width="1200" height="513" alt="3eventsa" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/74aa0f29-6e82-4302-91ed-c49b5202a4bc" />

What a year 2025 has been for Splatoon\! The events and breaking news just keep rolling in\! The Splatoon 3 North American League and its accompanying League Show and Sunday Scrim promise to wrap up the year with explosive action and hype all around. A major turnout in this event will hopefully convince Nintendo to bring the same level of attention to the competitive Splatoon scene outside of Japan and North America. 

Missed the trailer or want to return to it? It can be found on Nintendo of America’s YouTube channel, here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEzrnAgRl8A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEzrnAgRl8A). 

Original Posting Date: September 4, 2025

Written and formatted for publication by [YELLOW](https://bsky.app/profile/great-hero-yellow.bsky.social).
