Grand Fest Recollections. Thank You For Two Years!
My heart feels so heavy today. As I woke up to see a sunrise that matched the one we finally have in Splatoon 3, reality settled in.
Life has to go back to normal after a splatfest weekend but this celebration truly changed everything.
The Grand Festival was such a wonderful celebration of Splatoon in its entirety.
I felt the most unbridled joy experiencing that magic brought to the in-game performances, the live renditions of each song in carefully crafted set-lists and seeing Liquid Sunshine choreography and its vibrancy for the first time.
On and off stream the three stages are where I spent the most time during Grand Fest when I could. I sat around the venue and just took in the details of the concerts and the setting; enjoying that moment in time was how I kept myself grounded.
But I think what had me start to unravel is realizing that I let the actual splatfest battle experience slip away.
I’d seen a Twitter comment on Sunday while I was taking pictures of Three Wishes that mentioned again how we would be able to return to the venue because of a datamine (granted I knew of this from months ago) about the amiibos.
I had no idea when the feature would drop and when we would be able to revisit the Grand Festival Grounds again. It could have been a week from now for all I knew.
We got the confirmation almost instantaneously. I was overjoyed to be able to go right back but I also felt a little ridiculous for not playing the fest more if this would be the case.
I want to give a massive thank you to everyone who did play matches with me for Team Present though—especially my homies @Chandlier1229, @mxntymoon, @semisentientseafood, @epicyoshimaster and @kosirenn
Big ups to @CJHyperfresh and @Jasbiskus for inviting myself and my partner @squidryder to collab on an amazing stream. It was an unforgettable time and we had so many laughs.
Thank you Ryder for joining me in Tricolor and reacting to the results! You make me smile so much and your presence is a present.
Emotions were high throughout this whole event for a lot of us but personally, I wasn’t able to fully process it until things were ending.
I know I got overwhelmed with the vastness of everything and other more existential thoughts. So, I can only imagine what developing all of this was like.
Admittedly, I felt my reaction to Three Wishes was lackluster. The whole reason I went for an IRL stream was in case I didn’t say much and so that some emotion was visible.
I cried the first time I heard the song and saw the lyrics but the tears weren’t happening that Saturday.
Granted, there’s a lot happening the first time you experience Three Wishes in-game, but the way the VOD turned out is something I can’t change much like my splatfest team.
While I had my reasoning for joining Team Present, perhaps I was too logical about it. Although that’s what the theme asks of you, I can’t help but lament on this a little bit. I want to work through this feeling.
I went in thinking that the present is where I can experience all of time. It’s a difficult concept and a part of me wishes I had treated it differently. Seeing clips from people playing the splatfest also got me in my feels, too. I wonder if I did enough.
As someone who chose Team Marie and fawns over her the most (Frye is probably a close second at this point), I thought about joining Past simply because she was fighting alongside Callie this time.
The Squid Sisters had the most compelling splatfest art by far for the event and I know their Grand Fest outfits were my favorite.
Their music saved me from the moment I played my first Splatoon 1 splatfest. I cried over the Plaza, over seeing them back in the DLC, over hearing City of Color leitmotifs to this day.
The Rainbow Color Inkantation version of it has so much urgency and emotion in the vocals, as if they’re urging you to remember them and fight for the past.
That’s not to say Off the Hook isn’t also meaningful to me, however. They are the reason I was able to pursue voice acting as a hobby in the first place, starting out with voicing over their splatfest dialogue.
And of course, we all know their formation is still so closely linked to the Squid Sisters existing. Anyone who watches my streams can tell which group I go crazy over the most but choosing in terms of the passage of time may not let your choices align and check both boxes. I agonized over teams for a while.
Ultimately, I stuck to the question as best I could.
Which is the most important to you?
Experiencing the now. Finally reaching that promised day.
My memories are never super clear for me unless I preserve them in some form of writing, video or photo. Skill issue on my part but all brains are different.
So, I repeated this a lot that fateful weekend: the present moment will always become the past so make it count. Choosing one doesn’t mean the other isn’t important but again it was truly difficult.
My past self got me where I am now and every decision I make in the present sets me up for success in the future.
I grew up hearing that we don’t know what tomorrow looks like and you can’t obsess over it. Although, when you have good things to look forward to you can’t help but anticipate how they’ll play out.
Past, present and future are intertwined and if you look at the splatfest theme graphic, you’ll see that all the ink swirls connect despite being different colors.
I think that’s why they called the second night of the Grand Festival the Day of Unity. We were all together to witness that performance regardless of team choice.
Music will always be the core of Splatoon and it will carry on across the sea of time, imbued by our passions and joys.
Good games, well played to everyone! I’m really grateful to have been here and seen every splatfest from the beginning this time around. Splatoon has been with me through every season of my life and it's ink-redible.
I have so much appreciation for everyone who stopped by the streams over the weekend. Doubly so for those who shared messages about when they first found my videos and the impact they’ve had.
I’m glad my enjoyment of Splatoon could resonate with you and go so far as to brighten your day.
We reached 3K followers on Twitch (another yearly milestone) with everyone’s support and I met so many new people. To those who know me from my videos only, I hope you’ll stick around for the ride.
Looking back, I started broadcasting there in late 2022 so I’ve streamed every Splatoon 3 splatfest since the World Premiere (aside from the ice cream theme since I was visiting family).
Thank you for letting me share my thoughts this weekend. It had been a rough few weeks leading up to Grand Fest, so, once again I’m glad I could be there in any capacity.
Thank you Splatoon team for everything you’ve created and I hope we can continue to show just how much this series means to us. It’s time for me to finish up some projects from the past.
This is my first post on this side blog but I plan on sharing more of my writings here so please look forward to it!
Sending you all so much love and strength, Yume