BODY: Grizzco is calling in the reserves. Nintendo has opened entry registration for "Summer Salmon Festival" (Natsu no Sake Matsuri), a special tournament dedicated to Splatoon 3's cooperative Salmon Run mode โ and it's being run through the game's own in-game tournament tools.
Announced on June 12, the event is scheduled to begin on July 4 at 5:00 p.m. JST. Rather than a standard competitive turf or ranked bracket, this tournament puts the spotlight on Salmon Run, the four-player PvE mode where teams fend off waves of Salmonid enemies and their hulking Boss varieties to collect Golden Eggs against the clock.
What makes the festival notable is how it's organized. The event is built using Tournament Support (Taikai Support), the feature Nintendo added to Splatoon 3 to let communities host and manage their own structured competitions inside the game. Seeing an official, large-scale event run on the same toolset that everyday players use is a quiet vote of confidence in that system.
Salmon Run has steadily grown from a side mode into one of Splatoon 3's most beloved features, prized for its chaotic teamwork and high skill ceiling. A dedicated summer tournament gives both casual crews and hardened Grizzco veterans a reason to clock back in.
The insider take
From Tokyo, the timing reads as more than a one-off promotion. Splatoon 3 has been enjoying a fresh wave of attention lately, including a notable resurgence on Twitch, and Nintendo leaning into Salmon Run โ the mode with the strongest co-op community loyalty โ is a smart way to channel that energy domestically. Tournament Support has been a low-key but meaningful addition for Japan's grassroots Splatoon scene, where player-run events thrive. By staging an official festival on those same rails, Nintendo is signaling that community-organized play is part of the game's long-term identity, not just an afterthought.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).