Mapping With Rewards Returns

New and improved, the open-form Mapping With Rewards mapping contests are back! Map a selection of Featured Artist tracks for your shot at a variety of prizes, from osu!supporter, custom profile badges to your submission earning a special spot in the game!

This article was posted in a similar fashion before, but we modified the conditions of the contest to make them more clear, and streamlined submissions by using the contest system!

Mapping With Rewards is a more open-ended approach to mapping contests first floated in September of 2015 with a simple premise: we offer a bounty for the best beatmap set of a Featured Artist song, and a big timeframe to complete it in.

Casual yet competitive at the same time!

With its return, Mapping With Rewards' simple premise now covers all gamemodes instead of just one!

How does this all work?

It's very simple. We post post an announcement listing some songs, and from the moment it goes live, all of these songs have a bounty on them.

Any beatmap sets for this contest that are finished and ready for ranking within the conditions listed below are eligible to claim the bounty and enter the judging phase.

All that you need to do to flag your map as ready is to upload one version of it via the contest system. You're also free to upload the map via the Beatmap Submission System and give ranking the mapset a shot while the contest is running. When entry collection kicks in we will take the latest updated versions of the submitted entries where available.

If your entry is judged to be the best set among all those offered, the map is declared the winner for that its respective gamemode and you get to claim the bounty on the song.

With that out of the way let's get to the main part of this post: songs, bounties and conditions for claiming them!

Songs

Fractal Dreamers - Fortuna Redux

The opening track from Fractal Dreamer's debut album Kingdom of Silence. Incredibly varied, high tempo EDM track with strong central melodies and thumping percussion. Well suited for mappers who enjoy intense tracks.

• 4:13 uncut, pre-timed .osz
• 2:47 MWR-cut, pre-timed .osz

*namirin - closing eyes

From *namirin's latest album, 5colors. Bright vocals without excessive sweetness, set to a backing track that builds on victorious overtones. Likely familiar to anyone who is fond of anime.

• 4:08 uncut, pre-timed .osz
• 2:37 MWR-cut, pre-timed .osz

Loki - A New King Is Born

The cinematic climax of Loki/Thaehan's The Fall of a Hero. High BPM symphonic metal with prominent electric guitar melodies and leads, set to muted but varied percussion.

• 3:22 uncut, pre-timed .osz

Bounty

The bounty is claimable once per gamemode per song - for the sake of simplicity all of osu!mania's keycounts are treated as one gamemode.

This is the bounty set on this contest:

• 6 months of osu!supporter for you or your friends
• Unique, mode specific Mapping With Rewards 2017 profile badge
• Winning entries will be fast-tracked to Ranked via the dedicated attention of a selection of Beatmap Nominators and Quality Assurance Team members
• Winning entries will receive special placement on osu! granting more visibility than normal mapsets

Conditions

• Submissions must be entered via the contest system. Maps only uploaded via the Beatmap Submission System will not be considered.
• You are free to submit multiple entries on the page if you wish to enter into more than one song, but can only enter once per song.
• It is allowed to submit the beatmap sets via the Beatmap Submission System, have them modded on the page and even reach Ranked status while this contest is running.
• Entries may be submitted until 31st December 2017 UTC+0.
• Submissions must adhere to the Ranking Criteria or be in a state close to satisfying this condition through minor changes.
• Custom hitsound samples cannot be used.
• Collaborations are not allowed because we aim for coherent sets.
• If not enough people of a gamemode map a song, no contest will be held for that particular song and mode.
• We reserve the right to change the map's background after it has been ranked.
• If a short version of a song is offered, mapping the full version will lead to a slight bonus in judging.
• The bounty is only awarded to maps that use the versions of the song announced in this post. Further cuts, or remixes do not count, but further equalizing the songs as well as adjusting their overall volume is allowed.

By they way, if you're a proficient mapper or modder and aren't considering participating in this contest, why not help out with judging? If you're interested and think you're capable, make yourself be known by replying to the Judging Call for this contest!

—Okorin