Correction: I've been informed that my statement that Low Ink was the first skill-ban tournament is incorrect.

"gem gives dating advice" was just blown out of the water by "gem gives transitioning to adulthood advice"

I love the idea of getting a Low Ink ban certificate, like that’s unbelievably hilarious

The urge to make a team called ‘The Regulars’ and lose on purpose in the semi finals so we can compete every month for a long time and get the genius reward for longest team/individual to be in Low Ink (excluding TOs and founder)

It's already known that Gem's splatoon advice is also dating advice, but I'm pleased to see his dating advice is also a call to eat the rich.

Best thing you can get is a DM from Popgun saying:
“Congratulations, you are banned from low ink”
I framed an put it on my wall

I know it’s a running joke that these videos can be dating/life advice, but towards the end I legitimately forgot this was a splatoon video and was only reminded when I realised what was on the screen

Low Ink is Senioritis in splatoon form. Without a next step, there is no motivation to go on. If I had infinite time resources and money, Low Ink would just be 1/4 tournaments in its vein, with Medium Ink taking those banned from Low Ink, High Ink taking those banned from Medium Ink, and Max Ink taking those that have been banned from all previous Inks, with no bans for winners here. It would allow the Low Ink community to expand up the skill ladder, while still maintaining its graduation gimmick. But this is literally 4x the work in concept alone, and probably 5-6x in real life, so this would be unlikely to happen.

the tangent at the end really reminds me of “the enigma of amigara fault” by junji ito. it’s a good read if you like horror, and the people shaped holes seem to be a metaphor for the world around you shaping you into something completely different than you were originally…

The world shapes us and it can be abused for ulterior motives, even kinda unintentionally. I feel like Low Ink can feel like a trap to some people, feeling like the community is telling you "here is this perfect environment of people to help you get better and have fun games instead of getting stomped 24/7, but now that you won, congrats, and never come back, go back to getting stomped." And I mean, that is literally what they are telling you.

The gap from Low Ink to the greater competitive community is massive, and I feel the issue is, we need grades, tournaments that mean more, that the community puts more emphasis on.

If there was a "Refilled Ink" intermediate skill tournament that had the specific prerequisite of being able to win Low Ink or similar tier tournaments, but not winning or placing high in bigger tournaments.

If you want to nurture good players you have to have another stepping stone, we need a big, monthly event for teams to strive for to keep improving because we take them from the fish tank to the ocean with no time to acclimate, we need a pond to get acclimated to first, y'know?


In affect I understand a lot of this is made with good intentions, but if Low Ink is the right skill level for a team, the worst thing they could do is win it, because they lose the place they belong, as not everyone has the goal, even in a competitive environment, to be the best, sometimes it's just about having fun.

Bro this video is so relatable for language learning too. When you get that big first level of fluency and take an official test everyone's so impressed and you feel like you could conquer the world for a month or two... And then you realize you've completed like 5% of a several year journey and it's like you got smacked in the face by an anvil

Started this video like "let's hear a bit about how it is up there in Low Ink and some tales from Gem". Ended up with decision to make myself some strong tea and have a quiet hour for myself and my thoughts.

Wow. Gem I wasn't expecting a video essentially made to highlight players like me. I am very grateful for our efforts as The Grillers back in 2020, but once we won low ink I didn't entirely know what was next. I just followed the path that was given and like you said everyone was ushering us into the + servers. I don't really like pickups unless its with people I know, so the + servers were never for me. I decided to take a step back from competitive Splatoon not too long after due to, as you know, time issues. I still don't have as much time as I used to, but now I want to start playing again, and actually set goal for tournaments like SOS and other open tournaments.

I can relate to this video a lot. While I’m not LI banned yet, and can’t really speak from Splatoon experience, I play Geometry Dash at (pretty much) the highest level, and there is no greater feeling than beating that first extreme demon- other than beating the hardest level in the game, exactly like what you said with LI and winning a regional.

I do like the idea of having a "high Ink" tournament.
Kind of a middle step, that gives low ink winners a new, possibly achievable goal that's realistic to reach.
By the time those low ink winners get good enough to actually win this hypothetical high ink, they'd be at the point where they can realistically aim to the next landmark - wether that be winning a major, becoming a top level team etc - which, without that middle step that this high ink concept could be, these top level goals feel so much more inachievable to these low ink winners. Because, the gap is so.......... absurd.
A high ink tournament would smooth up taht difficulty curve a bit. And I think that'd be great.

Man that little bit about the advertising industry is so true, when I was at the end of high school I considered going into marketing because from my experience in computer class "hehe making silly dumb commercials is fun", but when I started attending advertising panels and stuff it was all about target audience, data analytics, audience manipulation, etc. Haven't trusted a commercial since 😭

Me, for being a casual who doesn't look for the competitive scene, I think low-ink concept is really cool and it feels like a step towards going for more competitive tournaments.

Maybe on this case, there is a lack of branding of tournaments that could be calling themselves as a group "middle ink" or "high ink". Then the best of the best (wold championships, etc) would be "top ink".

But for me, I don't know. I am just outside of competitive. Winning Low Ink would be like a huge achievement, like having an university degree; If I use that degree is or not is up to me :).

Low ink banned player here. Gems mentioned it, once you're low ink banned, you need a degree of self determination to progress through the community.
No one is going to give you a new goal to achieve, and obvious goals to strive are extremely difficult to grasp at (like being the best in NA).
You have to find what YOU want your comp career to end up as. For me, it's to have a taste of top level; for someone else, it's to be the best tent player in NA; for others, it's just having a good time with friends in scrims/tournaments; and there are many other goals I haven't mentioned here that people have.
The bottom line is, YOU have to understand what you want out of this game. If you don't, your time in the comp community ends with your ban.

6:37 Reefslider indirect can one shot crab!?

Just wow, I love the dating advices from the squid school channel.
But all great this, the subjects matter of this video is like exactly what I am going threw in life. This new perspective is rich and I am grateful for it. Thank you gem 🦑