The Last Survivor of an Offline Game: Only 4 Maps Remain for the Next Decade

Since Nintendo's online servers for the 3DS and Wii U officially shut down over a month ago, there are still a few determined individuals who refused to turn off their console and who are mysteriously still connected. One of them is Lcd101, the original Splatoon player, now stuck with a rotation of cards – he can't play directly – that won't change for ten years.

Today, April 30, 2024 at 2:30 p.m., marks the final rotation of Splatoon 1 maps on the Nintendo Network. These cards should be in rotation for the next ten years. Here is the latest broadcast of the Calamazones (the mascots which present the card and equipment changes, editor's note) – Introduces the player Lcd101 on his X account.

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A 10-year rotation!

Prior to this, for Ranked Battles and Turf Wars – Splatoon 1's two online modes – the Splatoon maps changed every four hours (as did the modes for Ranked Battles). However, after the servers were supposedly shut down, dataminer OatmealDome, which runs a website displaying map and mode rotations for all Splatoon games, noticed that from April 30, 2024 at 8 p.m., the rotation of the cards for both modes was scheduled to last a decade!

If it were possible to play, we would find ourselves in Territory War on Mako Skatepark and Haddock Docks and in Bazookarp Mission on Marine Ruins and Girelle Towers. This selection is rather ironic, with Tours Girelle being one of the most controversial maps in the game, largely due to his favoritism for sniper weapons. One fan describes this ten-year rotation as “a fate worse than death.”

Alone in an abandoned virtual world

Since April 9, Lcd101 can no longer access and launch games in multiplayer modes, but he has reached this rotation. It was a long time coming: for a month he waited in empty lobbies, until he announced that matchmaking had finally been disabled, ending his quest. However, that didn't mean he was disconnected, as he could still see equipment changes in shops and get card rotation updates from Calamazones sisters Ayo and Oly. Moreover, Lcd101 reports that no other news has occurred since the start of the ten-year rotation, but this does not seem to mean that the player has finished his mission.

So what does this mean for me? I'll stay in the game as long as there's something new to document. At this time, I have no plans to log out of the Nintendo Network. I always want to see if the stores update in the evening. – asserts Lcd101 on X.

Currently, Lcd101 is one of the last 7 individuals still connected to the Nintendo network servers. It's unclear how long he plans to hold out, although he wants to stay to document whatever happens.