Onotora’s Splatoon Team Paints Its Way to a Win Two Players Down in Final Tournament Practice

NIJISANJI — Onotora’s team won a late practice match in Splatoon 3 on Friday with only two of its four players still alive, covering the zone in ink until the clock ran out. It came on the final practice day before #にじイカ祭り2026 (Niji Ika Matsuri 2026), the Nijisanji Splatoon tournament that was due to begin the next day.

The team, Kenchanazu, is made up of Onotora, Honma Himawari, Seffyna and Lauren Iroas, and all four streamed the session from their own channels. It ran about two hours and twenty minutes, mostly in Splat Zones and Tower Control, against another team. The stream opened with a running joke billed as an “uncle showdown,” and near the end one of the participants declared it won and promised to take the real one the next day.

“Keep painting! We win by painting!” — Kenchanazu, in a late match

The night was not one-sided. The team picked up wins by painting hard and keeping the front line, and talked through when to save its Booyah Bomb special, settling on having it ready about 30 seconds before the end of a Splat Zones match. Long-range Hydra Splatling players on the other side gave them trouble, and they dropped several close matches, including a Splat Zones game decided in the last seconds. After the last match, the participants said they felt they had finished ahead overall, particularly in Splat Zones.

On his own channel after the others had signed off, Onotora said he never tilted and that his aim for the day was to stop shying away from face-offs. He credited Honma’s grasp of the objective and Lauren’s reading of the match, even while hiding, for how the team played.

The team will play on Saturday, and the participants said their block was expected to start around 5 p.m., earlier if the official schedule ran fast. Seffyna said the team was in Block B, which follows Block A. Himawari, who called Splatoon a game she finds difficult, thanked her teammates and viewers for tips on throwing bombs and said she tried a bomb-rolling technique that night. She added that her team placed third last time and is now aiming higher. As they signed off, the four asked viewers to cheer them on with the hashtag #けんちゃなーずWIN.