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| title | date | author | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raise 4 RAICES: Splatoon’s Community Script-Flip Raises 9x Its Goal for Charity | 2025-12-23 |
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In one tournament played by TOs across the globe, over $4,500 USD was raised for charity
On Saturday, December 20, 2025, members of the Competitive Splatoon scene most familiar with behind-the-scenes operations put themselves center-stage to raise money for a noble cause.
Tournament organizers, commentators, content creators, and many more put their hat into the ring for four rounds of Swiss into a single-elimination bracket. Furthering the theme of a “flipped script”, two players from FTWin–one of the best Competitive Splatoon teams in the West–were commentating: [K]yo and Shak!
The story begins one week prior to the tournament date, where captains for the 38 teams joined on stream, commentated by Fufu, Stormy, Cyren, and Sasu, to pick their teammates in a draft.
Every participant was ranked in skill level from 1-4 (1 being the highest and 4 being the lowest), and each team could only have one player per skill level. The draft, which ran nearly two hours long, started with just $80 donated, and by the end, had raised $767.67! This far surpassed the event’s expected funding, $500.
The four hosts doing the “67” gesture as the total donations reached $767.67. Raise 4 RAICES’s Bluesky posted this with the caption, “Necessary sacrifices were made”.
The charity that the tournament was raising money for is RAICES Texas, a nonprofit organization providing pro-bono and low-cost legal assistance for immigrants in Texas (United States). The nonprofit also connects those in need to community resources, partakes in social services, and advocates for immigrants’ rights.
There were two stretch goals for the donations: the first one, at $750 raised, Popgun, host for the Popcast on Monday nights and well-known for being bald, would have to wear a wig for the entire Popcast episode on Monday, December 29. To raise the stakes, Cyren also agreed to wear a bald cap.
Going into tournament day, with the $500 donation goal already surpassed, the fun began! The stream started with $1,531.67 in the donation bank, and would need to reach $3,000 for the second stretch goal, being an IPL sneak peek announcement!
There were five brackets following the Group stage: Alpha (which was streamed), Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Just about every set had at least one alternate stream from a player’s perspective–at least 40 streams were happening at once!
The Group Stage and Round 1 of each bracket was a Best of 3, but beginning with the Semifinals, sets changed to Best of 5.
Epsilon Bracket - God’s Sacred Holy Pizza vs. Agnostic Nonbinary Centrist (0-3)
God’s Sacred Holy Pizza made their way to Finals after going 2-0 over Quote Unquote and 3-1 over Starrain. Agnostic Nonbinary Centrist started the bracket in Semifinals and went 3-1 over 30 to 40 Olives. 30 to 40 Olives won 3rd place in the bracket.
Finals kicked off with Rainmaker on Undertow Spillway, then went to Clam Blitz at Scorch Gorge, and finally, to Tower Control at Hagglefish Market. Agnostic Nonbinary Centrist got the set shutout over God’s Sacred Holy Pizza, 3-0, and took the gold for Epsilon Bracket!
The members of Agnostic Nonbinary Centrist, from left to right: Tessaract, YELLOW (that’s me!), Static, Sibirrino
Delta Bracket - Dio and the they/thems vs. Nauty List (2-3)
Dio and the they/thems reached Finals after going 2-0 over Beating the support allegations and 3-1 over Game Changers, a team sponsored by Revolution Gaming. Nauty List made their way up from Round 1 by going 2-1 over Did you pray today? and 3-1 over El Gato Volador. Game Changers took the bronze as 3rd place in the bracket.
Delta Bracket’s Finals went all the way to a game five: Dio and the they/thems took game one, Clam Blitz at Museum d’Alfonsino. Nauty List won Urchin Underpass Splat Zones, and then Dio and the they/thems took the Rainmaker game at Scorch Gorge. Nauty List closed out the set for 1st place in the bracket by taking wins at Tower Control Shipshape Cargo Co. and the tiebreaker back at Clam Blitz at Museum d’Alfonsino.
Congrats to Ace Astro, Half, Squidoku, and Dittogami on their hard-earned win!
Gamma Bracket - 3/4th of Roger Craig Smith vs. We’re Better Together (0-3)
The Gamma Bracket saw 3/4th of Roger Craig Smith dominate their way to Finals, dropping no games against Fruit Basket Fiends or The Phantom Players. We’re Better Together went 2-1 over Violence Store and Mako Mart Employee Union, who ended up in the 3rd place spot.
We’re Better Together swept 3/4ths of Roger Craig Smith, going 3-0 in Splat Zones at Robo ROM-en, Rainmaker at Scorch Gorge, and Clam Blitz at Barnacle & Dime.
Celebratory drip pic featuring Turtle, osa?, BROSHI!, and Broken Pinky (We’re Better Together) on the left, and Jokera, lemon, Joryan, and frostiix (3/4ths of Roger Craig Smith) on the right.
Beta Bracket - Christmas Reef vs. After Shadows (3-0)
Beta Bracket’s Christmas Reef and After Shadows both advanced from Round one having gone 2-0 (against 3 Supports and a Bow, and Silence, frontline, respectively). Christmas Reef went 3-1 over sendou simps to arrive in Finals to meet After Shadows, who went 3-2 with Yuri Plane, the 3rd place team.
Christmas Reef didn’t drop one game against After Shadows, winning on Clam Blitz at MakoMart, Rainmaker at Robo ROM-en, and Splat Zones at Mahi-Mahi Resort. After Shadows took silver in the Beta Bracket, and Christmas Reef earned the gold!
Christmas Reef, from left to right: Nato, Echo, thatACkid, and iMAD
Alpha Bracket - Into the Soup vs. See you tomorrow (1-3)
By the time Alpha Bracket arrived, the donation pool had exceeded $3,000, unlocking the second stretch goal: an announcement from IPL about a new project, which [K]yo teased having a connection to.
After a close call in Round 1 of Alpha Bracket, Into the Soup beat Bunny Criminals 2-1, then went on to 3-1 the 3rd place team, No Good Ideas, to meet See you tomorrow in the Finals.
See you tomorrow arrived to the Finals set having lost no games to Team Naga or Mr. Worldwide, and having already seen Into the Soup in the Group Stage, where they went 2-1 over Into the Soup.
Game one began with Rainmaker at Museum d’Alfonsino. See you tomorrow pushed the Rainmaker early in the game, making it to 34 in the first 40 seconds. Into the Soup countered with their own checkpoint clear before the game passed the halfway point; See you tomorrow’s response was to push their lead further, to 27.
The game went into overtime with the Rainmaker tucked into a corner. Into the Soup was able to pop the Rainmaker shield halfway through the overtime counter, but See you tomorrow picked it up and ended the game in a victory, 73-42.
Game two was Splat Zones at Robo ROM-en; Into the Soup now kicked things off early by capping the zone 12 seconds in. See you tomorrow was able to take the lead after setting up a lockout over their opponent.
Managing to hold the zone through several of See you tomorrow’s specials, Into the Soup once more took the lead as the game reached the halfway point on the clock, but again, See you tomorrow was quick to reclaim it. They held the zone all the way up to an early knockout.
Game three, Tower Control at Hagglefish Market, saw See you tomorrow move the tower slightly early into the game, which Into the Soup surpassed easily and got their first checkpoint from. They gave See you tomorrow a challenge to take the first checkpoint, and were able to pass the second one with ample time to spare.
KBy game four, the donations had exceeded $3,500, and now the game was at Barnacle & Dime for Clam Blitz. See you tomorrow snuck past Into the Soup and scored just after 30 seconds passed, all the way to 44.
The next time either team scored, it was Into the Soup, with about one and a half minutes left on the clock. After tossing in the Power Clam, they wiped out See you tomorrow, and brought their score to 45-44.
See you tomorrow fought their way to Into the Soup’s basket and scored again, increasing their lead to 32, with 30 seconds to go. Overtime expired before Into the Soup could get across the map to contest.
With a final score of 68-55, and a set score of 3-1, See you tomorrow walked away as the winner of the Raise 4 RAICES charity tournament!
Shout-out to the players on the top three teams of the event:
1st Place - See you tomorrow:
- Alice
- Cactus
- Thoma
- Soren
2nd Place - Into the Soup:
- Radha
- eli
- Pinky
- WaffleCat
3rd Place - No Good Ideas:
- Nep2ne
- SLett
- LiberoWolf
- yoshido
After the tournament concluded, the donation pool–thanks to one last donation from Shak–was at $4,167.69. [K]yo and Shak signed off with a goofy 67 emote, another reminder about IPL’s surprise tournament teaser to be announced later, and a heartfelt thank-you to the hard work of the organizers for making Raise 4 RAICES a reality.
Donations for RAICES closed 24 hours after the stream,
where the final donation reached a total of $4,545.92!
The Raise 4 RAICES tournament was a global effort, with tournament staff, creators, commentators, and more around the world participating for a good cause. In addition to those who either played or organized, a handful of artists and players also offered their skills as raffle prizes to donors in the form of art prizes and coaching sessions.
With gratitude to all of these folks:
ORGANIZATIONS REPRESENTED:
Original Message DeletedTOURNAMENT STAFF & PRODUCTION:
Alice, Azalea, Ckk, Ely, Hollow, Lexi, Rockit, Samapuris, Strings, Tomato, Xi
COMMENTATORS:
Cyren, Fufu, [K]yo, Sasu, Shak, Stormy
ARTISTS:
Ace Astro, boop, casillus, chaedr, Chai, enya, ghostie, Hiro, McJamie, snuppy, 원 (Won)
COACHES & CONTENT:
Chara, Custom, Echo, Ezio!, Fisk, Hexen, Jared, Kera, Kbot, Reborn, Shak, Shiny, Ori
Interested in watching the tournament or the draft stream? You can find them at:
Draft youtu.be/kRpcX-mgZgU
Tournament youtube.com/live/VlU09-X...
Original Posting Date: December 23, 2025 at www.splatoonstronghold.com/news/raise-4-raices-2025
Written and formatted for publication by YELLOW.