Official Mapping Contests: osu! Mapping Olympiad

The osu! Mapping Olympiad marks the return of official beatmapping contests. Starting with the osu! gamemode, we're bringing back beatmapping contests in full force! Introducing the first contest: Pick one of three songs for your chance to become osu!'s first Mapping Olympians!

With 2017 just behind us, 2018 is poised to bring many new experiences to osu! To help us start off the new year, let us reach back into something that was once in the past. After a long hiatus, we are thrilled to announce the revival of official beatmapping contests: Welcome to the osu! Mapping Olympiad!

The osu! Mapping Olympiad aims to provide mapping contests across all game modes on a regular schedule. We won't quite say it'll be monthly, but it'll hopefully be close to that, run by a small team of community members that are just as excited for more contests as you are!

To keep things interesting, we will be hosting a number of different contest formats, from traditional full mapset contests to speedmapping, Aspire and other new contests—so stay tuned in the upcoming months!

Songs

To start off, we are launching this first contest with not one, but three songs for you to choose from! Showcasing a variety of our Featured Artists, have yourself a listen to the tracks you have the opportunity to tackle:

From one of the most well known artists in osu! comes another upbeat pop track infused with electronic elements that give it a dynamic twist: Kuba Oms - Beautiful Uncertainty (Redux)!

Featuring one of osu!'s newest Featured Artists, this is a fast and exciting retro video game inspired track: OISHII - Honey Snowflakes!

And last but certainly not least, this laid back track features playful melodies that float gently over a trance and house inspired groove: cYsmix - Escapism!

Rules

• This contest is for the osu! mode only.
• Each entry must follow the Ranking Criteria. Entries that break the Ranking Criteria will be subject to penalties ranging from point deductions to disqualification based on severity.
• Beatmap submissions may contain files up to 15 MB.
• Storyboarding will not be considered in the judging process.
• Custom hitsounds are allowed to be used.
• You may submit one difficulty for one song. Multiple submissions for multiple songs will not be accepted and will result in all submissions to be voided.
• Maps submitted to the contest must not be uploaded with the beatmap submission system (BSS) until the contest is concluded and the winners are announced.

Judging Criteria

All entries will be judged by the following criteria:

• Musical Relevance (10P) - how well the entry follows the music with its choice of rhythms, emphasis, spacing, etc.
• Creativity (10P) - how unique and innovative the entry is in its use of concepts and design.
• Technique (10P) - how well the entry utilizes the editor and its tools to create structure, patterning, etc.
• Impression (10P) - how the judge views the map holistically (as the entire creation). All of the concepts used in the map should work well together and should be executed in a consistent and polished manner.
• Hitsounding (5P) - how well the entry utilizes hitsounding to emphasize and follow the music.

We are looking for capable judges! If you are interested, please make a post in the Judging Call thread or send a message to Chaos. Please be aware that we can only accept people who have the resources (knowledge, time, reliability) to properly judge the entries.

Prizes

After the entries are judged and the results are finalized, each of the top three maps for each track will receive the following prizes:

• 1st place: 3 months of osu!supporter, 6 Olympiad Points (Results in 'Mapping Olympian' Badge)
• 2nd place: 2 months of osu!supporter, 4 Olympiad Points
• 3rd place: 1 month of osu!supporter, 2 Olympiad Points

For Olympiad contests, we will be using a point system to award the 'Mapping Olympian' badge. This means that top placing results across multiple contests will grant you the opportunity to be awarded a badge even if you do not win a particular contest. Every 6 points earned will grant you a badge level, with incrementation on the badge for each level achieved. The expected baseline for points rewards will be 6,4, and 2 for the top 3 entries respectively, but the specific rewards will vary per contest based on expected effort and challenge for the participants.

Some of you may be wondering why there isn't an Elite Mapper title being rewarded for this contest. We considered a few options, but none provided an adequate balance between fairness, demonstrating mapping prowess, and competitive integrity for this particular contest. We will have contests in the future where the title will be rewarded once again so worry not!

You may submit your entries for 24 days from the date of this post. Download the pre-timed .osz files below:

Song 1: Kuba Oms - Beautiful Uncertainty (Redux)

Song 2: OISHII - HONEY SNOWFLAKES

Song 3: cYsmix - Escapism

You can find all the information as well as a submission deadline countdown for your convenience at the Contest Page, so be sure to check it out. But enough explanations—get out there and show us what you're capable of. Good luck!

—Chaos, Irreversible, Voli