In the Splatoon community, especially those who partake in the competitive side of things, everyone knows who ThatSrb2DUDE, also known as DUDE, is. He is one of Splatoon’s biggest streamers and content creators and has become one of the faces of the game over many years.
With mere days to go until Splatoon 3’s release, DUDE talked with Dot Esports about all things Splatoon, the community, Twitch, and his thoughts on the game’s competitive future.
First of all, what are your overall impressions currently of Splatoon 3? And what are your major hopes and desires from what you’ve seen?
DUDE: My overall impression, well impressions right now, the game is friggin insane. First of all, I think all the new specials that are going to be in the game are gonna be extremely fun. It’s a lot more like Splatoon 1 than Splatoon 2 but has vibes of both games at the same time. But I really like it because I prefer Splatoon 1. So I feel like that style of play is going to come back into this game. And I think a lot of other people are going to really enjoy it too.
So this is more of a question on Twitch. How did you, first of all, go about becoming a Twitch streamer? And then how did you decide that Splatoon was the game you’re gonna devote your life to?
Funnily enough, so when I started streaming, I think mainly, I was doing YouTube. So it was like, I had a whole YouTube channel where it was based on just Sonic content. I was a big Sonic fan. I did loads of stuff like that. And basically, when Splatoon was like, closer and closer to becoming a thing, I just started thinking about… I really wanted to play this game. So I started doing a little bit of news for it, like stuff that’s been shown off to us, like when the next testfire was going to come out, and all that type of stuff. And basically, when the game came out, I was just like, well, before the game came out, I went on the forum and joined a competitive team.
Before it even came out you were competitive, huh?
I had that set of mind because I watched a lot of like competitive content. And it was kind of like something that I wanted to do without having played the game. So Splatoon will have to be that game. And I decided to start streaming it and start making videos for it. And it picked up a lot of traction, especially on Reddit. And yeah, like, honestly, from that point on, my livestream just kind of just went up and up.
So would you say you were one of the first Splatoon people?
Basically, yeah.
Looking at what PandaGlobal is doing with Smash Bros. and seeing what Nintendo is not doing with the Splatoon scene, would you like to see Nintendo support a more competitive Splatoon?
I think what needs to happen, like a couple of things that could happen. I think some of the main things that need to happen, especially for Splatoon… I think especially for all the EU sides… because the North America Nintendo’s definitely been making a lot more tournaments and getting a lot of the grassroots stuff. So they’re actually getting tournaments and stuff like that. I think that needs to come to the EU as well and in just a much bigger form. And like, on top of that, I feel like with Splatoon… I think what would be grateful for a lot of competitive players is a hard question.
But there’s a whole lot you can think of like a competitive queue, though, right?
Yeah, I think in Splatoon 3, what could help us well, especially with it being inside the game, like a tournament mode, so that when people actually like turn on the game, they already know that, oh, there’s a way to actually practice in a tournament setting and all that type of stuff. So it like encourages people to be more competitive with the game. And you know, if that’s already in the game, I feel like Nintendo has more of a mindset to actually push that and drive that and say that this is something that’s a part of the game. And this is something that you should also try out.
Moving on to the community, Splatoon is huge, as big as its ever been. Do you feel any pressure being one of the big faces of the community like your words carry more meaning or do you feel no pressure at all?
Um, I feel like honestly, since I’ve, kind of, I’ve been a co-creator for, like, 10 years now [on Twitch]. And honestly, nowadays, I don’t really even like, I associate myself as just a regular person that, you know, of course, a lot of people know who I am, but I don’t let it get to my head where it’s like, there’s all this pressure or anything like that. It’s just, it’s just a casual thing. And just, you know, I just like to show that I also enjoy the game just like everyone else, too. So I’m not really much… I like to show that I’m not too much different compared to other people.
And lastly, how important is the Splatoon and the Twitch community to you as a person?
Oh, it’s for me. It’s like it’s almost everything because like, this is all I like, top of like above a bunch of other things. This is one of the main things I love to do. So you know, I’m gonna try and do my best to make as much content as possible and stream as much of the game as possible. Was even thinking of doing a 24-hour stream on the launch.
