For the past month or so I've been getting back into Splatoon because Splatoon 2 now launches tomorrow (I wont be able to play it for two weeks...) and I have been really excited for it. Everything strarted off fine, I would jump in, get my ass handed to me for being away for so long, and then eventually catch up to everyone else. But something strange started happening recently, specifically yesterday this started. For whatever reason the top tier Japanese players just seemed to vanish and I was left with lobbies full people who just... well, they were terrible. Not just terrible though, they did a ton of things that just havent been present in Splatoon, at least from my experience since the beginning of the game.

Players would leave their base completely bare, with no ink covering the ground at all. (in turf wars)

Players would often hide in corners to escape opponents. (a rookie move since that basically guarantees immediate death)

A lot more people were using rollers, and are terrible with them. (this is pretty rare from what ive seen. the only people who usually use rollers have a ton of experience and know how to use them)

Low leveled player. like in the 4 - 10 range when everyone else 40 - 50

Even the people who were level 50 were making dumb rookie mistakes, leading me to believe that I had previously just gotten use to the pro level Japanese players and had ended up in an American lobby for once, except no, there were also plenty of Japanese names.

as for me personally its really killing the vibe of the game. i could be the only one on my team with any real skill, so naturally I would rush forward to hold off the enemy team, only to find that they decided to just follow me to the front without splatting anything. so then I would have to stay in back to ink everything only to realize that my team is just constantly dying, and i cant go help because otherwise nobody on my team will actually ink anything.

Its just really baffling to me that now, starting 2 days before the release of this game's sequel, so many new players seem to be flooding the game, and I just cant think of a single reason why. the only reason I could think of is that these were people who already had a Wii U and couldnt buy a Switch so they just bought the original Splatoon as a substitute. But even so, Splatoon was one the biggest games on the Wii U, so it cant be that so many more people JUST NOW started playing. I dont know, maybe this happens a lot with online games, but I just thought it would be interesting to share, see what other people might think.

try playing a game of Turf Wars. you'll probably see what im talking about

People want to try it out before they get Splatoon 2, or they got a used Wii U and are substituting for a Switch until they can find one in store. Also a lot of people aren't new, but rather haven't played in ages. I jumped in yesterday and forgot what I was doing. That's what happens when you don't play for over a year. I'm currently the bad player trying out all the new weapons and items from the last two updates. 

right now im level 40. thats really just due to me taking a few long breaks. if i had played consistently i could have easily been level 50 by now.

Well isn't that a great thing!

I let my kids play on my game a lot and there 4 and 6. It could be just kids on parents profiles.

My kids used to play this game all the time on my file, and wasn't that great

I've been a lot of teams so far since you start at level 1, with people who have no idea what they're doing yet. So it does seem that way.

I started my first game of Splatoon ever today (Splatoon 2). Internet connection kicked me out in the middle of my first match, so I reset the router and played 2 matches without any further problems. Never left the base uncovered by my colors, and I learned to love the ability to swim through ink. It's actually a pretty simple concept to just spray everything as opposed to focusing on KO'ing the other team.

Was in a Turf War lobby with a level 1 today(talking about the first Splatoon) but it definitely wasn't a new player. They were averaging 1300p per match(not counting the +1000 you get for winning) and splat ratios of like 12 to 1 each time. Could've been someone who wanted to get matched against beginners just to wreck them.

I also had a couple matches where I was the only person not using a roller. It made me wonder if the others were coordinated and I inadvertently spoiled an effort to have 4 rollers vs. 4 rollers.

But this game has always been unpredictable in these ways. It's part of the appeal.