Aspire 2 Concludes: Winners Announced

The judges have made their decisions, and the winner of the second Aspire contest has been declared!

After weeks of intense scrutiny, our judging dream-team of Chaoslitz, Natsu, Okorin, Sonnyc agonized endlessly over the creativity thrust before them. In keeping with Aspire tradition, both ztrot and myself stepped in to judge purely in the creative category alone, giving the contest its signature weighting towards creative enterprise.

We showcased one of the game's most creatively-oriented maps (as far as mapping mechanics goes) in the announcement contest, and boy were we surprised by the massive variation in entries this time around! We saw everything, from stereo hitsounding, to fully keysounded maps, atmospheric storyboarding, metamorphising sliders, 2B burai kicksliders, wiggle-hold sliders, double-taps, 2016 TAG4 mapping and so, so much more. Personally, I was more impressed with this iteration of the contest from the sheer breadth of experimentation in its entries alone.

There was however, a clear leader over the rest. One aspirant displayed perhaps the most visually impressive entry we've ever seen in the contest thus far. If nothing else, it is at least a viable contender for the example set by the last contest winning map. Beyond being simply visually impressive, the mapper displayed some incredibly savvy technical understanding of the game and its mechanics, pulling out all the stops to impress every judge with their stellar work.

This entrant, now our newest Elite Mapper: Aspirant, is none other than Monstrata. Some among you may know him as the Lord of Triangles, or the Three-sided Saviour. Or any other name that vaguely references his signature mapping technique (hint: triangles) somehow.

View his spectacular winning entry below, courtesy of the osu!news channel:

Monstrata takes home a whopping 6 months of osu!supporter, a unique Aspire 2016 profile badge, and the Elite Mapper: Aspirant forum title. His mapset will be posted for approval shortly, though we'll need to do some tweaking on the back-end to ensure that it isn't giving away some of the hardest achievements we've ever released for free!

Play it for yourself and see!

It isn't over yet, though!

Asahina Momoko nearly snatched first place for themselves with an exceptional performance, but came just a little below the mark in second place. Their entry was marked with possibly the best implementation of hold sliders that osu! has ever seen - giving the developers some serious thinking to do about introducing the element to the game officially! They take home 3 months of osu! supporter for themselves, and the knowledge that their work may have had a profound effect on the future of the game. Play their entry here!

A number of other entrants had entries worthy of an Honorable Mention:

Regou wowed us all with a spectacularly well-done map hitsounded entirely in simulated stereo. Slap on a pair of headphones and give their entry a listen - it's truly something quite exceptional! Play Regou's stereo sensation here!

Fort brought out all of his storyboarding and mapping muscle, creating a phenomenal example of how much well-done storyboards can add to a map. Play Fort's masterpiece for yourself here!

Kin won over the judges with their beautifully color annotated 2B-inclusive map. This sounds unimpressive, but believe me - it is a strong enough entry to give the developers serious pause to consider 2B as an official mechanic. Play Kin's amazing entry here!

Taeyang brought out all of their Elite Mapper prowess, creating an extremely impressive entry (complete with spectacular storyboard) that only fell short of being a top 5 scorer due to the autofail restriction listed in the contest rules. Alas! Still a phenomenal entry, and definitely worthy of its spot as an Honorable Mention. Play their entry for yourself here!

Wafu stunned us all with an excellent map coupled with a stunning storyboard to the backing track. Very much worthy of its mention! Play Wafu's entry here!

All in all, I am ecstatic with how well this contest went. We had less overall entries compared to the first contest, but the general quality of the submissions this time was leagues above, and it seems that many talented individuals within the mapping community greatly value these contests to flex their creative muscles and try something new.

We'll be looking to hold these contests (and many others) more frequently in the future. Thank you to everyone who participated - you're the reason that these contests continue to be something special and amazing to behold.

View all the entries here.

Discuss your favourites on the official forums!

See you next time!

—Ephemeral