Beatmap Spotlights: April 2017

The Spotlights for April 2017 have been released and can be found here! Their respective packs are available at the Beatmap Pack Listing for easier access.

Each month, a selection of volunteers work alongside the Quality Assurance Team to pick out the best of the best for each mode. We reward the top beatmap in each category by providing 1 month of supporter status to the mapper. The April 2017 spotlight rankings will conclude on the 15th June 2017.

Past Spotlights results

First of all, congratulations to the winners of the March 2017 Spotlights. They receive one month of supporter status for their efforts!

• osu!: Toy
• osu!taiko: mangomizer
• osu!catch: RAMPAGE88
• osu!mania: Jinjin

osu!

Being one of the less conventional maps ranked in April, dsco's Pitch Fucker stands out among the crowd as a mapset with its own noteworthy design. It strays from the usual object arrangement catering to the comfort of a player, and instead attempts to feel more representative of the song through its various interesting mapping techniques.

It may have only placed 3rd in the Modhelp Mapping Contest, but this mapset still deserves to be in the spotlight! Insane and Hard use a simplistic mapping style that's based on symmetry and parallelism to the axes, but it follows the song surprisingly well. Irreversible's Extra is a great addition to the mapset, as it uses a lot of interesting patterns and SV changes, while managing to keep a nice flow. Be sure to check this one out!

Inspired by another map currently on its way to the ranked section, this map provides a calming experience directly related to the song it's expressing. The map itself may be mild in difficulty, but don't let that persuade you to skip this one! It's more enjoyable than it may appear at first glance.

You wouldn't know that this was Kibbleru's first time creating a "big" set on his own, from how well-designed this mapset is!
The highest difficulty has some interesting concepts here and there; and the Insane fits the song perfectly. Not to mention there is a clear contrast from the less intense sections of the song compared to the chorus.
Topped off by some excellent hitsounding from Naotoshi, this mapset feels quite special. Make sure to give it a try!

A wonderful map that captures the beauty of the song. -kevincela- shows us how fun unorthodox rhythms can be with interesting movement concepts, and the classically amazing aesthetics of his style as usual.

osu!taiko

The winner of this month's spotlights, Charlotte's talent, experience and skill with mapping really shines through with this formidable set. The Inner Oni displays superb usage of pair patterns and maintains a good flow throughout the entire difficulty. The climax is represented clearly by long patterns and streams being both enjoyable to play and following the music perfectly.

The lower difficulties are also excellent, with the Muzukashii by qoot8123 being a prime example of how it should be done - with consistent use of monocolours triplets used as emphasizers on certain parts of the song. Accentuated by solid patterning choices and clever break placement, brought together most of all in the kiai time, the two lowest difficulties use perfect rhythms and note timings to create a truly fun way to learn osu!taiko.

Go ahead and enjoy this exceptional mapset!

What is this, rap in osu!taiko!? Seeing is believing!

One of this month's osu!taiko maps in the spotlight, Zetera's Dawn of a Dark Day features not only the aforementioned rap sections mapped closely to both the vocals and the beat, but also a number of volume and slider velocity changes to reflect the intensity of the track.

From simple slider velocity slowdowns to difficult 1/4-snapped slider velocity increases in the kiai sections, Zetera did an excellent job in capturing the cadence of the track with his work, creating something truly special.

Guest difficulties to Strategas' osu! set, Arrival's Muzukashii and Oni adds some additional variety to this highly technical drum 'n' bass mix. Starting off with an uncommon 1/3rd snapping, both difficulties convey a clear rhythmic intention, and the maps are made all the more enjoyable as the meter shifts to 1/4th towards the latter half of the song.

In his flagship Oni difficulty, Arrival demonstrates a flair born of expertise by emphasizing intense sections of the song through the use of smooth SV changes, as well as employing fitting 1/6th bursts and doublets throughout.

Overall, the maps were constructed very well, and I would not be surprised to see this map being used as a common pick in future tournaments to come

We make the choices, and united we decided that Unmei Muma's United deserves a spot in this month's spotlight!

Wait, this sounds familiar. With more difficult, longer patterns and more drastic slider velocity changes than last month's United map, we have another approach at mapping this song.

The huge variety of patterns in this map will surely keep you on your toes, and it's just getting harder towards the end! Hopefully you'll enjoy this map as much as we did.

osu!catch

We really liked how the Rain is executed in this set with only using the best suited beats from the music. The Platter meanwhile could have been a little bit easier but it is still not on the usual level which feels good to play. All in all, this set should be a followable example for anyone who wants to make a good and suitable set for every level.

For their first ranked map, this is of impressive quality in terms of flow and song interpretation. The movements feel as if they're following the song and it's entertaining to play. Mapping like this shows what we should look forward to from new mappers. Good job.

osu!mania

Cool songs always produce a cool chart. Here comes an extreme 7-Key mapset by Garalulu, with guest appearances from Wonki.

Charted in a way that draws out the harmony between the music and the patterns themselves, this map truly is something special. An excellent example of well-designed difficulty spread, this set's pattern density slowly grows greater as you progress, starting out straightforward early on and moving up with the heavier chords and long notes at later difficulty levels to truly test your skill.

Well patterned to match the intensity of the track, the construction of the chart really brought out the best in the music. Give it a go, you won't be disappointed!

And that just about covers the Spotlights for April. We hope you enjoy the new template graphics for each chart, and we hope you look forward to what we have in store next month as well!

—OnosakiHito