How the QAT handle Qualified Beatmaps

Hi there! Feerum here! This is the first time you guy's will see a blog post by your beloved osu!mania QAT. But don't worry, it will be not the last!

I write to you today about a topic which is kinda serious, but first let me give you an update about something else! As you guys know already from previous blogs, the work of us, the mania QATs, is mainly to prepare the BN test (which will be awesome this time!) and my work is also to handle the Criteria Council United Beat Knights of the Ranking Criteria. Last weekend we had a pretty good meeting and i think we will soon be ready to share our work with you guys in the criteria forums. So stay tuned, things will happen soon!

Alright, this was the little update and now to the topic of the blog post. As you know, our work as QAT is also to disqualify beatmaps which get reported by the community in this thread, since the QAT doesn't look into beatmaps by ourselves anymore. The idea behind this is simply to make the process of what gets ranked and what doesn't more community orientated. You, the community, have to decide! Of course, some of us still look into beatmaps for major issues which break the Ranking Criteria, like unsnapped/shifted notes or other major issues. We don't handle the beatmap should it simply play badly or is over/under-mapped. You decide what get's ranked and what will stay ranked in future! osu! is a game where the community makes its own content and others should have the possibility to say "no I don't like it because...".

The whole process might look a little bit confusing now, which is why I prepared an awesome graphic to show you guys exactly how the beatmap get handled by us!

Additional to the graphic, let me explain to you guys what you see here:

Step 1: My beatmap is qualified! Finally!

Awesome! Congratulations from our side! The Beatmap Nominators decided that your beatmap is good enough to be ranked! I am sure the beatmap has gone a long way since the ideas first formed in your head. But what happens now?

Step 2: Oh no! Someone posted a mod on my qualified beatmap! What should i do now? It's already ranked and i can't update it!

Wrong! Your beatmap isn't ranked yet so don't panic! Yes, with the qualification your beatmap got a scoreboard, but it doesn't mean you can't change it now! The first thing you should do is to stay cool! No one wants something bad for your beatmap.

Qualified beatmaps get played way more often than Pending beatmaps. It will be listed below the "Ranked and Approved" beatmaps section, and also a message in the ingame IRC chat channel #announce will be posted, so it's absolutely normal that more people see your beatmap now. What this also means is that the chance to get a mod is higher than before!

Go into the beatmap forum thread of your qualified beatmap and check out what the modder has to say. Reply to it like to a normal mod as if the beatmap was still in Pending.

Note that you should keep in mind: Always reply to a mod on your beatmap! This is very important! We QATs need to know how to handle it! Do you like the suggestions or not? Did you even go through the suggestions? Should you not reply to a mod while your beatmap is qualified, we will always disqualify the beatmap.

This is not to annoy you because we don't like you. This is simply to make sure that you see the mod! Maybe you are right now on vacation whilst the mod was posted? Or you are unable to connect to the internet? We disqualify it to ensure you have the time to look into it and to reply it! Who knows? Maybe you even like the suggestions you got there. It would be a shame when someone posted a really cool idea and you can't apply it anymore because the beatmap got ranked.

Step 2.1: Some of the suggestions I got from the modder are cool. I want to apply them! But i can't update my beatmap. What do I have to do now?

When you really want to change your beatmap, you have to contact a member of the QAT from your game mode to report it, either with ingame/forum PM or via this thread. Always use the thread first! You can not be sure the QAT sees your PM in time, so they can't help you anymore. The thread gets checked by the majority of the QAT every day, so there you can be sure the beatmap will get disqualified within a few hours!

After you reach a QAT, they will disqualify your beatmap and move it back to the "Work in Progress" forums. Once this happens you are able to update your beatmap again! Now you can apply all changes you want and update it!

Step 2.2: I don't like the suggestions I got from the mod! The modder doesn't understand how I mapped it!

Then you have to explain why the suggestions the mapper gave you would not improve the map. Try always to explain why exactly you reject the suggestion. A simple "I don't like" is often not enough. Modders tend to start a discussion when their suggestion got rejected and they don't get any clear statement from the mapper. They also want to understand why and what was wrong with their suggestions. Your proper reply can help them to improve their modding skill for further modding! So please take always some time to reply it properly.

Step 3: Even when I rejected the suggestions the modder reported my beatmap to be disqualified! I don't want that!

Don't worry. Just because your beatmap got reported doesn't mean we're going to disqualify it blindly. As you can see in the graphic, here comes the time where the QAT takes a deeper look into your beatmap. The QAT checks now through every point of the report and decides if a disqualify is necessary or not. We will also check the thread if there is a discussion ongoing or not and read through it. Simply to understand both sides, to understand why the mapper doesn't want the disqualification and the modder does.

The QAT who checks your beatmap will seldom disqualify it on his own accord. They will often first ask other QATs of their game mode for a second opinion. Four eyes see more than two!

Step 3.1: The Report is valid! After checking your map and after contacting the other QATs from their game mode, we will disqualify your beatmap. The QAT will always post a reason why the beatmap got disqualified and if the points listed by the modder are valid or not. Maybe it's not even the whole mod you have to apply, but when your beatmap got disqualified there is mostly something wrong with it that needs to be addressed. Now comes the time where you really should consider applying at least a few things from the mod, or where the QAT advises it should be changed.

You are always free to ask us or the modder who reported your beatmap for help! Try to catch them in IRC and ask for clarification. Maybe you will find a better way then to apply the suggestions from the mod without changing too much. After contacting the QAT or modder, it happens often that an arrangement can be found which all parties are happy with!

Step 3.2: The Report is invalid! After checking your map and after contacting the other QATs from their game mode, the QAT decided to not disqualify the beatmap. Right now it is handled so that we simply do nothing and let the beatmap go further through the phase of qualification. Should things escalate in the beatmap thread (we really hope this doesn't happen!) we will post there to clarify why the beatmap is okay how it is. We try to explain to the modder that his suggestions were unhelpful, or didn't require a disqualification since it didn't seriously affect the quality of the beatmap.

But keep in mind: Should your beatmap get reported again, either for the same or an entirely different reason we will check it again!

Step 4: I got no mod and no report and my beatmap is ranked now!

Congratulations! Your beatmap was good enough to pass the qualification state and after 7 days or more of painful waiting it finally got Ranked! From now on no change can be made anymore. Not by you, not by any modder and even the QAT can't do anything for you now. That's why we have the qualified state! To ensure you are absolutely happy with your beatmap.

From now on, every player can earn performance points from it and the beatmap will stay forever on the osu server for others to download. Nothing more to do!

Since the process of qualification is now clarified, I would like to explain why you, the community, should always try to mod qualified beatmaps you don't like.

Like I already said before, the whole process of what gets ranked and what not should has become more community orientated. You are the community who play this game, so you should also decide what gets ranked and what not! If you guys don't like certain parts of a beatmap and you think it could be improved, do not be afraid to say it!

Go into the editor and mod the map! Even when it's just a little 5 second part you don't like. If you have any idea how to make it better, write it down in the thread!

Do not be afraid that someone is maybe going to hate you for this. Stay friendly and explain why your idea would make the beatmap better. Even when the mapper rejects your suggestion, don't be sad. You are always free to start a discussion about it! While participating in a discussion, you should also stay calm and provide good, strong points why your suggestion is better and why it would improve the beatmap. Never just say "It's bad" "I don't like" or "mine is better". This doesn't help. Why is it bad? Why don't you like it? Why is your suggestion better? The mapper always needs to understand what you mean with your suggestions and what you want to reach with it.

But please keep one thing in mind: Never try to force the mapper.

You can post feedback in the beatmap thread, but never try to force your ideals onto a beatmap of someone else. If you really dislike the beatmap, you should consider mapping it yourself. The beatmap owner always has the right to rank the beatmap how he or she likes it. It doesn't help you, the mapper or the community when you stubbornly try to force your ideals onto an other beatmap.

Alright! That's it! I hope you guys understand now a little bit better how the process of Qualified beatmaps work and why we don't disqualify everything.

Now it's up to you!

Do you have any questions about it? Still don't understand something? Feel free to ask in the disqus below! We the QAT will try to answer every question!

Until then, stay tuned for more blog entries in the future from your mania QAT!

—Feerum