Hello everyone and my apologies for the big delay! The Ranking Charts for December 2015 have just been released and can be found here!
This month Baraatje123, OzzyOzrock, alienflybot and Halogen- picked the maps for the Monthly Ranking Charts. Unfortunately, because of the low amount of ranked christmas / winter themed maps, we can't go for a themed chart, which is why we will continue with the normal procedure for now.
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 Baraatje123 pick their favourite maps.
I don't even know where to start with this map. It has a total of 11 difficulties, making the map fun for everyone to play. The lower difficulties are all manageable, but once you get to the higher difficulties they start getting ridiculous. Usually ridiculous maps are a bad thing, but P o M u T a, ignorethis, jyc-Binggan and Kiddly really know how to handle these types of difficulties. Kiddly's difficulty, EXK, is one of the hardest maps I truly enjoyed playing. It's quite gimmicky, but in such extent that it is rather easy to read and fun to play. Furthermore, this shows HT can still be really fun, and that you don't need to be a professional in order to like harder maps. Therefore, this map clearly deserves to be #1 of December!
Pho really knows how to make great maps. All the difficulties are designed to play well, and he succeeded. The lower difficulties really teach the players on how to play the more advanced rhythm, in an easy way, making it playable for everyone. The higher difficulties all have amazing patterning and play really well. The hitsounding also really follows the music. Not much else to say about it; everything is just really good.
Gero truly deserves to be on this list, because of this map. Despite it only having a Normal and a Hard (and 2 taiko difficulites), I enjoyed playing this. The aesthetics of this map are abolutely perfect, which is also a reason for me to love this map. Most of the time, when the aesthetics are prioritised, the playability of the map lowers, but it's not the case for this map. Here it actually works better altogether. And let's not forget the wonderful storyboard by XinCrin, which makes the experience of this map even better.
Properly mapping 1/3 is quite hard, especcially when it comes to rather repetitive songs. The most fitting patterns would be triangles, which get boring quite fast. Arphimigon however knows how to map 1/3, and keep it interesting. The map starts calmly, with normal spacing, but when the kiai starts the fun begins. The spacing increases, 1/3 sliders appearing who all follow the rhythm perfectly, and the map stays interesting for the rest of the song, combined with a lovely storyboard make this map deseve a place in the top 6.
Another one of the maps that can't be left out. This map offers a total of 15 difficulties spread over all 4 modes, with standard getting 9. All of the participating mappers fulfilled my expectations, especially the highest difficulties. EvilElvis did a wonderful job with his slow but tricky map. Irreversible also did a wonderful job in his collab difficulty with Blue Dragon. For both difficulties, just as most other difficulties, the song keeps getting faster and intenser, the map gets harder, the spacing increases and the hitsounds gets louder. This all adds up to the total experience. Don't forget to check out the storyboard by okoratu, which is really well-made.
This map shows how streams are done correctly. The song calls for streams, something Gamu did pretty well. The map occasionally switches snapping, but due to the way it's mapped it feels natural. The guest difficulties are all executed properly, but the Extra difficulty stands on the top. It follows rhythm perfectly, and the usage of 1/6 is quite clever. I'm personally not that big of a fan of stream-maps, but this map made me reconsider that. It's a flawless excecution of a map, which therefore needs to be in the top 6
For Taiko, we asked OzzyOzrock about their favourite maps in December 2015.
This extremely fun, energetic, and simply great map takes the top spot in December's ranking chart. With streams that never seem to stop coming, this song is not just a blast to play, but great training for many things recent taiko maps have to offer. It contains 1/6 within 1/4, which is a recent trend in the taiko mapping world, and has it play so well that it makes a great song to play for both skill, and that sweet, sweet PP.
I promised I wouldn't pick memes. But I just can't help myself. Armed with the power of Terry Crews, this map has a good amount of well-structured streams and patterns, along with easy-to-follow rhythms among the lower difficulties for any level of Old Spice user. The BPM is great for DT as well, if you can maintain your accuracy!
A simple map from a simple man, "killy killy JOKER" gets its spot for its wonderful emphasis on the great vocals this song provides, while still following the song's rhythm in between. Well placed big notes along with long spinners really show the effort to truly map everything the song contains, not just one sole instrument.
2015 was the year of 'TATOE', so I definitely see it as a good idea to close the 2015 charts with a song that delivers that famous phrase with power. This mapset has multiple guest difficulties, from game_rock's Kantan to Nardoxyribonucleic and JUDYDANNY's Onis, all of which contribute greatly to this mapset with a consistent level of quality among every difficulty.
Despite being this mapper's first ranked map, it has already managed to land itself in this month's chart. Having gone through a bit of a journey, including acquiring very many mods and even being rejected by the Taiko Nominator Association once (but accepted the second time after even more effort); once the map was ranked, it had evolved into a great map with consistent patterns and a great spread among difficulties to go with it. Also, the artist name has 'meme' in it.
With a BPM that doubles from 132 to 266, this song is one tough cookie despite having very simple patterns and even some mercy, such as the map going from 1/4 patterns to 1/2 for a while. The map plays off of the aggressive beat fairly well, and while it may take you a few tries, it is satisfying to finally full combo.
For Catch the Beat, alienflybot was the chosen one to declare the winners of the December 2015 beatmaps.
We all know that Spectator is capable of doing elegant difficulties while the outstanding flows can impress players a lot. More to that, the mapset provides great challenges to the best players, considering the intense and creative jumps in the hardest difficulty Someday, some may even have to input a few retries to pass or place a Full Combo on it. The Rain mapped by Fast is also fun to be played, with the awesome flow and also showcasing a different taste of Rain. In addition, the easier difficulties like Salad and Platter, do offer little challenges to the players, as the song is fast in rhythm and the patterns are not so easy compared to most of the Salads and Platters. In that way, players are more welcomed to try the mapset to prove that they are fully grasp the patterns in the particular difficulties. On the whole, the array of difficulties is nice and providing challenges to the players. Besides, the storyboard and also song is excellent that they formed an indispensable triangle with the mapping, granting the mapset to become my favorite mapset of December 2015. Keep up the good work Spectator!
At first I thought this mapset is just going to be another one going crazy with jumps and so. However, it turns to change my mind completely. Most of the parts fit the song pretty well and played out splendidly, especially the Extra difficulties, the jumping in the Kiai Time is fitting to the music, generating a rock-tasted rhythm that can impress a lot of Catch The Beat players. Not to mention that the song is fascinating to be heard and played, this mapset also take care of every intended audience, from the new players who can only play easier difficulties, to the experienced players who like dealing with challenging patterns. The Extra difficulties offer difficult-yet-rhythmical circle jumpings, where I find them matching the song pretty much. I recommend to all of you to try this mapset at least once!
For me I think this mapset is great to be mentioned. Simply look at each difficulty, they played extraordinarily well since the jumps and streams are fitting the particular parts, presenting a decent flow and the rhythm. Another point that cannot be missed is the mapset having a nice spread: the easier difficulties are not very difficult for beginners, thus helping the newcomers to get the pace. On the contrary, the harder difficulties are moderate to the players, not too easy, yet not too hard. Just to note that WildOne94 is quite potential in the future CtB mapping, in my opinion.
This mapset captivates players due to the gameplay that fit in particular places. The mapper versatilely applied diverse dashes in different parts, emphasizing the intense beats and drum sounds, and thus creating an ecstatic atmosphere that are found to be appealing to the players. For instance, there are prolonging sliders at the climax of the song in Rain, that I find matching the flows perfectly. Furthermore, the mapset is also filled with a decent spread that helps beginners to advance, while the Rain can be tough to some of the players. All in all, the mapset generates an awesome spread to be played on.
Though the map is a bit short in length, this mapset showcased an array of difficulties that suits every audiences, ranging from easier difficulties like Cup and Salad, to the harder ones such as the Rains and Imagination (Overdose). Besides, the short length of the mapset encourages players to retry in order to get a satisfying score on those difficulties, especially for the Catch The Beat newcomers that they can try to progress past difficulties. Last but not least, the song is fun to play with, mainly because the mapper cleverly placed dashes on essential notes, bringing an upbeat nature to the song.
Everyone knows that playing Camellia songs is quite interesting because of the uplifting streams and throbbing beats. For me, this map totally displayed how thrilling the gameplay are, with the crazy patterns that can really bring shocking-yet-fulfilling experiences to the players. In addition, this map also offer challenges to the top Catch the Beat players since it involves a flurry of intense patterns, such as the slider-stream madness jumping in the Kiai Time. Let's see if you can pass it, or even getting into the leaderboard!
For osu!mania, Halogen- was able to select their personal most noteworthy beatmap from last month.
A highly energetic song produced by void, Valedict is a 7-key, mania-only mapset by pwhk with a rather nice difficulty curve that attempts to capture a large demographic of players. Featuring four maps, ranging from one 1.5 stars all the way up to the brutal Black Another difficulty that hovers a little bit above five and a half stars, players learning the 7 key mode and highly seasoned players alike should get some enjoyment out of this. My personal favorite out of this set is the Another difficulty, which really works hard at capturing the melodic and accented melodies in a challenging way while still being fair. For the really seasoned players, the Black Another absolutely batters players with long sequences of chord-streams and harsh patterning structures.
This song is incredibly catchy, and it makes for an excellent scoring challenge by virtue of the song. While mapped by Irreversible, Feerum steps up to the plate with a 4-key set that starts off with a rather slow tempo and rudimentary patterns, before increasing in pace and pattern difficulty. Feerum does a great job capturing multiple elements of the song, opening the highest difficulty beatmap with solid pitch relevancy and mixed layering between the vocals, also taking note of pattern structure as things get a bit more hectic. Also noteworthy of mentioning: this map is an all-mode set! All game modes get some representation here.
Quite a familiar sound. For those of you that recall KAC 2012 ULTIMATE MEDLEY -HISTORIA SOUND VOLTEX- but could not figure out all of the songs that made the composition possible, Max Burning is what you hear when passing through this song in the game as the preview music. SpectorDG does not play games on his 4K INFINITE; it gets rather close to the 5 star area, which is not that easy of a feat to do with only 4 lanes. The hyper-aggressive structure leaves those who struggle with streams containing liberal amounts of doubles/triples in a world of hurt. Additionally, there are numerous sequences of LNs of alternating length mixed in with some pushy SVs, making this map difficult even for the savants of the 4 key mode.
Spy? Space Time? How can I not? Well, it's a DIFFERENT Space Time, and one that is much more pleasurable to play. KAIROS IN THE SPACE TIME is a very short, sweet, and simple 4K set -- running only at 55 seconds. Between the two of the three highest difficulties, there are exactly three sliders between both sets. If you wanted an accuracy war for the mania players, you've got it here. The structure is simple, featuring some streams with numerous jumps interlaced in them, as well as the occasional 1/6 burst. The patterns are very smooth overall. 1,000,000 point scores incoming?
One of the shorter choices in this pool, Little Busters! is a five difficulty, 7-key, mania-only mapset. One of the things that I grew fond of testing this map out for the pools was the congruence and general cleanliness of the structure of the highest difficulty, which managed to appeal to me as someone who is still learning the game mode. It flows really nicely, and carries a reasonable amount of pattern deviation that provides enough of a scoring difficulty to be replayable. Lots of LNs, some bursts, strong accented layering, the works... it's all here. It is rather friendly to newer players as a whole set, with three of the five difficulties hanging below the 3 star range.
Rounding off the December ranking pool is Takane6's 7K set for everyone's favorite bang-bang-woosh-woosh song (but not really), Preserved Valkyria. While the ranked 4K set has a blistering stream section for the opening piano solo, Takane opted to go the more technical route for the map, refraining from the excessive speed and instead focusing more on extreme layering and well constructed pattern placement that does a respectable job following the music. Also featuring five-difficulty set, this map aims to cater to adept players, with the second lowest difficulty being just a hair under three stars. The GRAVITY tips at roughly 5.4 stars, but unlike Valedict, does not have quite as rough of a structure, with a good majority of the 1/4 patterns carrying scale-heavy patterns. If the GRAVITY proves to be too much, Shin's INFINITE does a great job providing an equally effective interpretation of the song, while dropping the layering a touch to put more emphasis on the speedy melodies.
The December 2015 ranking charts will end on the 20th February 2016. For the next month, we will elect new community members to pick their favourite beatmaps, so stay tuned!
Congratulations to the winners of the November 2015 Ranking Charts. They receive a month of supporter status for their efforts!
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!
—OnosakiHito
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