Aspire Returns (Beatmap Contest)

Aspire returns for a second round. Mappers from around the world, prepare yourselves!

Due to overwhelming demand, we've decided to bring the contest back for a second run, pitting the best creative minds of the mapping community against each other in an almost-everything-goes design free-for-all!

We introduced the mapping community to IAHN (one of our licensed artists) a little while ago with a monthly beatmapping contest for the track Candy Luv. Little did anyone know that his cutesy sound exterior was but a ruse, and that he was hiding some serious musical grit all along. The track for this iteration of the Aspire contest will be a new track from him, titled Transform.

You can listen a preview of the track below:

(This is a preview of the actual track, not the whole track included with the beatmap itself.)

The rules of this Aspire contest variant is as follows:

• The contest accepts only osu!standard mapsets.
• The map must be able to be completed without the NoFail mod required to pass it. Completion is considered as being able to pass the track without failing it - not FCing (full-combo) it!
• The map must be of a difficulty level where reasonably skilled players (think 30k+ rank) can complete it with significant effort. This means that yes, your map may be very difficult, but not insurmountably difficult. No Apparition wannabees, please!
• That's it!

(The difficulty rule is deliberately vague. We want to encourage mappers to break the current mold of difficulty = creativity. Intelligent use of everything at a mapper's disposal (storyboards, backing videos, .osu file editing, hitsounds, timing sections, etc) is what we're looking for over maps that are exceptionally difficult.)

The standard Ranking Criteria does NOT apply. Mappers are completely free to pursue whatever they envision for the song. Mapping techniques such as "2B" are also allowed. A good example of many of these "fringe" mapping techniques is expressed in the popular "Debug" difficulty of aran - Graces of Heaven mapped by rustbell (aka: spro).

The winners of the contest will receive the following prizes:

• 1st place: 6 months of osu! supporter, unique "Aspire 2016" profile badge, osu!news showcase featuring their winning entry and an 'Elite Mapper: Aspirant' forum title, mapset enshrined forevermore as an "Aspire" class Approval map.
• 2nd place: 3 months of osu! supporter
• Honorable Mentions: 1 month of osu! supporter

Yes, you did read that right - any map impressive enough to warrant an honorable mention by verdict of the judges will receive a prize. There's no excuse to not get involved and give it your all.

Get the pre-timed osz file and submit your entries here.

If you plan to submit a storyboard or any other extra resource (hitsounds, video, etc) with your entry, you will need to package the resources in a zip file and put a link to said zip file in your entry notes when submitting.

Entries will remain open for 31 days from the date of this post - so get cracking! Judging may take up to two months from the date of the entries closing, but we will endeavour to get our results out ASAP.

Remember, use everything at your disposal. Storyboards, hitsounding, timing points - everything that the game gives you the means to use is at your fingertips. This is no ordinary beatmapping contest - so don't submit ordinary beatmaps!

Good luck!

—Ephemeral