The Ranking Charts for February 2015 have just been released and can be found here! Along with that, the Winter Season of the Ranking Charts long-term leaderboard has concluded and we have our winners! We've also completely overhauled the way the monthly charts are selected, drawing upon the expertise of some of our community members!
Congratulations to the winners of the Ranking Charts Winter Season! They will be rewarded with 3 months of supporter status and the user title Charts Champion for 3 months. For the first time, Dusk was able to defend their titles. This tremendous achievement grants them the unique user title Charts Grandmaster and a boosted prize of 6 months of supporter status instead!
Some of you may have noticed that we have chosen not to give Axton777 prizes for winning the charts this round despite his place on the leaderboard. This is due to his continued disregard for our community rules and policies. We felt that awarding him prizes in light of his behaviour would send entirely the wrong message for the sort of behaviour that we want to promote within the community.
Players that choose to violate those rules also choose to demean the efforts of legitimate players who abide by our rules. Accordingly, they also forfeit any bonuses from our community-run competitions and initiatives.
On a lighter note, the other winners for the Winter Season are:
Furthermore, we are opening the new Spring Season of the Ranking Charts. The new season winner will be rewarded with an additional 3 months of supporter status and the user title Charts Champion for 3 months. Additionally, if one of the current Charts Champions wins the new season as well, they will be rewarded with an extra 6 months of supporter status and the user title Charts Grandmaster for 3 months instead. Finally, if a Charts Grandmaster is able to defend their title again, they will be awarded with the user title Charts Legend for 3 months and an extra 6 months of supporter status.
Regardless, the winner of each individual ranking chart will receive a month of supporter status.
The charts have previously been created by letting four dedicated community members select the most noteworthy maps of this month.. We also reward the top beatmap in each category by providing 1 month of supporter status to the mapper.
For osu!, we decided to let Frostmourne pick their favourite maps.
This Extra can be the best Extra in this month considering the 6.16 stars difficulty on this. It actually plays like 5.5 stars map which means it's amazing and successful. I can't find any maps that are as fun as this map in this month. The patterns and jumps he used in Extra fit the song perfectly.
This map is the example of how drum hitsounds should be done. They are great to listen to everywhere in the map.. They suit with the song as if they are really coming from the song itself. The spread from Normal to Hard is a little tricky somehow, but further difficulties are done very well. It's all in all pleasure to play.
Every single stream in the highest map is executed as if the mappers tested play for a thousand times or so. The slider jumps emphasized with the music mixed with a number of streams that were so natural that they made you feel like you can alternate even you don't mainly alternate. The rhythms used in this song are awesome. It is exactly what I can imagine and fits the music perfectly. The spread of the entire mapset is great. A little hooked up from NOVICE to ADVANCED though, but that's what is expected from this kind of song.
This map contains many blankets to make the map interesting with clean and consistent spacings. Rhythms are easy to follow on the hardest difficulty which makes it look like it's not OD9, but it actually is. Sylith's Another is beautiful and very fun to play for average players, might have some tricky jumps which are mostly are intuitive to read.
Pretty old map by Reiji-RJ. The storyboard that fits with the abandoned boat - and the middle is a bit creepy though. Hitsounding is brilliant along with the design of the map. Sliders and patterns make it beautiful to watch this map without playing it.
I could say this map is challenging in a level that should satisfy most average players if I assume correctly. The map feels fun to play on the similar level throughout the song. It has no boring parts at all. Patterns are interesting and made me feel that the mappers really did put efforts and some creative creation into the song. Might look messy in editor, but it stands out when you play it.
For Taiko, we asked aabc271 about their favourite maps in February 2015.
Personally the best map in February because I just love the hitsounds and note arrangements. With the help of speed and density change, these 1158 notes don't just fit the drums closely but also deliver the complex emotion of the song. The finishes at the last kiai give me a deep, lasting impression.
I really like how both onis include hitsounds that represent the background drums well, while keeping appropriate note density for this relaxed song. Note arrangements are also highly structured and consistent, especially in Nardo's Oni. Overall a simple yet nice mapset.
Given the high difficulty of mapping this in taiko, OnosakiHito did a good job at showing how drum-oriented mapping plus a bit variations can create interesting rhythms while maintaining coherence with the heavy background drums. Also varying note density shows the structure of the song well.
The highlight of this difficulty lies on the close connection with background drums. The Kiai time is a nice example showing how the notes blend with the music naturally. One thing I don't like, however, is the inconsistent difficulty spread caused by the significantly harder streamy sections at the middle part. Other parts are nice to me though.
I like how the Inner Oni and the Oni follow drums quite differently. They showed different ways to fit the drums, with challenging elements like 1/6s and complex streams which, at the same time, remain a good difficulty spread. I think this would be quite fun for charts.
Both Onis showed their unique interpretations on the music. Oni includes nice hitsounds representing the background drums, and Stu's version has great attempts on having a balance between drums and vocals. I know Charlotte appeared twice in this list, but I think he's really a potential mapper that deserves more of our attention.
For Catch the Beat, Spectator was the chosen one to declare the winners of the February 2015 beatmaps.
Definitely one of the best CtB map so far. The overall pattern is neat and clean, which fits really nice with the calm and peaceful voices of the singer. Also, the storyboard made by -[Koinuri] is spruce and good-looking as well. You may play the map with storyboard at least once!
By far the best map CLSW ever made, the sliders in highlight part are well placed and actually fun to play with for every kind of player, even for the beginners! As each of Salad and Platter has their unique pattern, I'd like to mention lower diffs as well. The Platter diff was especially one of the best Platter diff I've ever played.
Pretty challenging map, though it's still very nicely mapped. Also I really loved the way he used some oriental sounds for hitsound. They really suit well with the song. Even though this map is a bit rough, you may watch Xinely's outstanding storyboard work for at least one time.
How can someone believe that this map is literally the first CtB map made by Karia? The map is nicely mapped with the fine hitsounds and has some nice jumps. So I'd like to recommend you this map as well.
The song is attractive and captivating. I loved the way how mapper emphasized the strong sound with jumps, they are really enjoyable to play with. Have fun with this map! Although the map isn't specifically made for CtB, it's genuinely fun to play with!
He did a nice job since he didn't overuse jumps nor streams but he tried his best to make all patterns go with the relaxing atmosphere of the song. I was pretty interested since this map was mapped with AR8, which is fairly rare to find lately.
For osu!mania, Rumia- was able to select their personal most noteworthy beatmap from last month.
This one is a really beautiful marathon map. Especially the guitar solo part was impressively mapped. The way this map is executed and mapped made me recommend this map to everyone who plays osu!mania
This one is an awesome 4K mapset. I was mostly impressed by victorica_db's GRAVITY difficulty, as it offers a very fun challenge for everyone who is into playing 4K. Not that I also loved the song, but the mapset is very well balanced and structured. A very solid work by Spy and their contributors.
A 4K beatmap with a very well designed structure and a great gameplay. The spread is designed in detail and allows everyone to enjoy this mapset. Recommended to everyone!
Especially the ADVANCED Lv. 12 difficulty impressed me here. I enjoyed playing this difficulty a lot. But also the EXHAUST and its way to use hold notes was interesting and unique to play.
A very clean beatmap with a very well designed spread, even though it only has three difficulties to offer. Unfortunately, the map is quite short, but I enjoyed it a lot anyways!
This map already impressed me when judging for the Monthly Beatmapping Contest #7. Its creative use of hold notes, impressive gameplay and great structure design made me put this map into this month's ranking charts again.
The February 2015 ranking charts will end on the 15th April 2015. For the next month, we will elect new community members to pick their favourite beatmaps, so stay tuned!
Congratulations to the winners of the January 2015 Ranking Charts. They receive a month of supporter status for their efforts!
Also, congratulations to the winners of the Best of 2014 Ranking Charts. They receive 2 months of supporter status for their efforts, too!
Good luck with the new charts! We'd love to hear any and all feedback you have about the new format and selection process for the charts - feel free to leave a comment below!
—Loctav
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