Nintendo hasn’t always been as heavily involved in the world of eSports compared to other game developers, but that might be changing.
There are more Smash Bros tournaments nowadays, as well as the Pokémon UK National Championships – and Pokken competitions are cropping up too. It even has a Twitch channel.
Now Nintendo has teamed up with Gfinity for ‘The Summer of Splat’ – a series of Splatoon community activities running from July 16th to August 7th, including a series of online tournaments called The Great British Splat-Off.
Splatoon is a paint-based multiplayer shooter for Wii U that has more than four million players worldwide.
Battles will take place over the four weekends with teams (matched by Gfinity) fighting to win the best of three.
The tournament has three different leagues:
- Squid Kid League: For younger players – Turf War game mode only
- Inkling League: Beginner/casual players – Turf War game mode only
- Octo League: Open to all ages and levels – More challenging featuring all game modes
Each weekend, six winning teams (two from each league) will be given the chance to win tickets where they can compete in a live day of challenges – The Splatoon Fan Fest – at London’s Gfinity Arena on August 27th.
Nintendo is also running competitions on the Splatoon Facebook page, as well as cosplay throughout the four weeks.
Nintendo is also offering a 25% discount on the game from the Nintendo eShop, down from £34.99 to £25.99 between July 7th and July 21st. It’s also released a series of Splatoon ‘Top Tips’ videos.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He has almost two decades of experience in journalism, and left Esports News UK in June 2025.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He also previously worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation.
