Kokonami Iruka Spends 10 Hours in Splatoon 3 Private Matches a Day Before Nijisanji Event

NIJISANJI — Kokonami Iruka streamed about 10 hours of Splatoon 3 practice from Thursday evening into early Friday, Japan time, playing nearly all of it in private matches (*purabe*, in Japanese streamer shorthand) with other Nijisanji talents. The practice was for Nijisanji Ika Matsuri 2026, the group’s Splatoon event, and by the end of the night she said only a day remained before the real thing.

Much of the early going took place in a lobby that Hanabatake Chaika had gathered to train Kitami Yusei, with Iruka among the players. Kitami had decided to play as “Spider-Man,” his name for the way he teleported in on enemy positions, and the label became the lobby’s running joke. Chat piled on with lines such as “Spider-Man is a unit of measure,” and players kept asking what exactly it meant. Yamada Ryuichiro joined partway through and introduced himself as a composer by trade, which drew a burst of chat. First-time greetings went around the room, and Iruka met talents she had not played with before, Dola among them.

“I realized that not dying matters.” — Kokonami Iruka, between rounds of practice

In one match a teammate kept charging back in as soon as they respawned, and a participant explained that this zombie style was how Chaika’s team in an earlier tournament had come to be named *Hikiniku Rengo*, or Ground Meat Alliance. Chat said it had loved that team. In another lull Chaika, who had been quiet in the coach’s seat, said she had been playing the ocarina and then played it on stream, to chat’s delight. After the group session wrapped up, Iruka stopped to cook cup noodles before the next lobby, thanking viewers for the Super Chats that arrived while she ate. Back in a new room she said she was third in her team’s order and that her team had already finished its practice for the day.

As the night went on, she said practice had taught her that staying alive matters, and she admitted that she had been dying too often. A run of stream errors hit the lobby and players traded tips on adjusting the bitrate in OBS. When her console’s fan began to strain, she turned the air conditioning up to cool the room and kept playing. At one point she remarked that private matches were the best practice of all, something she said she had only worked out that day. She also went through matches of stronger players, picking out flank routes on the harder maps.

The last lobby, which included Milan Kestrel, ran on the same few maps for more than an hour, and Iruka thanked the others for the repeated practice. She said she was still undecided on which weapon to bring to the event and would talk it over with her team, noted that team practice would not be possible the next day, and signed off with a goodnight.