The QAT Gazette: July 2018

Beatmap Nominator Evaluations, another upcoming public QAT meeting, and huge Ranking Criteria changes that may change the face of mapping forever are all on the menu for this month, and reading inside is the fastest way to hear all about them!

Opening

by JBHyperion

We're quite used to “busy months” here, as any regular readers will be aware, but as far as major, meta-redefining changes go, July might have been our biggest and busiest in quite some time!

Inside we'll be bringing you updates on these major overhauls, from first steps in a new, more structured system for gauging Beatmap Nominator performance, through to massive Ranking Criteria changes governing what types of beatmap can and can't be pushed to the Ranked category. Keep reading if any of that sounds interesting to you (which naturally, we hope it does!)

Within the Beatmap Nominators

Only one major development in the Beatmap Nominator Team for you all this month, though it's a significant one that will affect how we keep track of each Nominator's activity, behaviour and proficiency in the future. Naturally, there's also news on new and departing members, so read on to find out more!

Beatmap Nominator Re-Evaluations

Throughout July, we conducted a thorough review of activity, proficiency and behaviour for all current members of the Beatmap Nominators, in an attempt to ensure the quality of their collective work, and to provide help and guidance on how to improve where necessary. Depending on each Nominator's performance in these three areas, varying degrees of action were taken, ranging from promotion / retention of full Beatmap Nominator status for sufficient performance and above, to probationary Beatmap Nominator status for insufficient performance.

Probationary status currently operates under a “one warning” system — this means that Nominators who were currently on, or had been previously been placed on probation for any given reason were dismissed from the team if found to be performing below expectation for a second time. Regardless of the reason for dismissal, we thank each Nominator for their service to the mapping and modding community and invite them to return in a later application cycle should our concerns be satisfactorily addressed.

Feedback was provided by Quality Assurance Team members in each Nominator's respective mode(s), explaining the reasons for the decision taken, as well as indicating any areas for potential improvement if applicable. The main factors considered were presence of unrankable issues, breaking Nominator Rules and the Code of Conduct for Mapping and Modding, modding and nomination activity, as well as major mistakes such as unhitsounded sections, poor mp3 quality, or extremely unbalanced beatmap spreads. Requested disqualifications for minor issues and subjective / controversial maps were given a fair amount of leniency.

As a result of the Beatmap Nominator Re-Evaluations, 49/95 Nominators were retained as, or promoted to, full member status, 34/95 were retained or placed on probation, and 12/95 were removed from the group. Future evaluations will take place in conjunction with new Beatmap Nominator application phases on a six-weekly basis.

New Beatmap Nominator Promotions

Whilst our existing Beatmap Nominators were being reviewed, we were pleased to present a wave of some new and returning circle inspectors to the team. Please offer a warm welcome and congratulations to the following on their admission into the Beatmap Nominators:

BOUYAAA, Cris-, frogyfro, Gottagof4st, IceKalt, MrSergio, pimpG, riffy, Rizen, Seto Kousuke, UndeadCapulet, Yauxo and Yugu!

May their efforts bring you many Ranked-beatmap-sized bundles of happiness over the coming weeks, months, and maybe even years!

Beatmap Nominator Retirements

Where some may be taking their first steps as a Nominator, others seek new pastures, new challenges, or perhaps simply a well-deserved rest. We thank the following departees for their tireless efforts and enduring vision:

Arzenvald, incandescence, Delis and Sorcerer.

Within the Quality Assurance Team

by Raiden

There have been numerous events that are of everyone's interest this month, which we’ll get into in a second — with regards to team structure, there were unfortunately no new additions to the Quality Assurance Team this month. Luckily no one has decided to leave us either though, which is always a positive!

Changes to Beatmap Spread Rules

Beatmap spread rules have been quite stagnant over the last couple of years, although that has now finally changed! After a proposal made by returning Beatmap Nominator UndeadCapulet and four entire months of discussion amongst various community members, a consensus was finally reached. Thus, the new spread rules (which you can learn more about below) were amended into the Ranking Criteria, overwriting the old ones that we used to have.

Most notable changes are applied to the lowest possible difficulty of a set, which now depends on the beatmap set's total drain time:

• If it is less than 3:30 minutes, the lowest difficulty must still be a Normal or lower.
• If it is between 3:30 and 4:15 minutes, the lowest difficulty can be a Hard.
• If it is between 4:15 and 5:00 minutes, it can be an Insane.

Beatmaps that exceed 5:00 minutes in drain time remain unaffected by spread rules and requirements, just as they were before, although now it is also possible for mapsets of any drain time to contain only a single difficulty, if desired, provided it follows the criteria above.

The Quality Assurance Team will be monitoring the development of this major change over the next few months, to determine if a noticeable drift in beatmap spread quality occurs. Should we feel that the general quality of mapsets has reduced over this time period, we may re-evaluate this approach.

Other Ranking Criteria Changes

A little more minor, but by no means less important, have been the addition of the following Ranking Criteria guidelines which are mostly related to beatmaps that contain multiple songs, under the Audio subcategory:

• The audio file of a song should not be artificially extended in order to meet a time limitation in the mapset section of this criteria. This can include (but is not limited to) looping sections of the audio file, lowering the bpm of the song or section of the song, or adding small amounts of music to the song without incorporating it throughout the entire song. This does not apply to song compilations or audio files less than the minimum rankable mapset length.
• Song compilations should incorporate 3 or more songs. Using only 2 songs in a compilation is a lackluster experience for players, and should be broken up into separate mapsets. Exceptions can be made for songs that were exclusively released together.
• Song compilations should be mixed properly and should not include abrupt breaks or long fades between different songs. The songs used for the compilation should be similar in audio quality, volume and length. This is to ensure compilations achieve the same cohesive gameplay experience as other beatmaps.

You can find more information on each of these changes, as well as previous and any future amendments, in the Ranking Criteria Changelog maintained by pishifat.

Changes to Beatmap Veto Mediation

The process of veto mediation is frequently a painful one for all involved, highlighting a lack of agreement between a Beatmap Nominator and a mapper. For the Quality Assurance Team, the mediation process is also rather time-consuming and it's disheartening to know that one of the parties involved is never going to be satisfied with the result.

Whilst the existence of the beatmap veto is currently a “necessary evil”, the current turnaround time of 72 hours has proven to be quite a headache for us as there was often not enough time for an appropriate deliberation. We have therefore decided to trial changing this to allow one week for mediation, with the rest of the process remaining unchanged for now.

Quality Assurance Team Public Meeting #3

As in previous months, the Quality Assurance Team will be hosting its third public meeting in the osu!dev Discord server this Sunday the 19th of August at 1400 UTC+0. Anyone is able to join in order to follow and participate in the discussion, so if you want your input on the future directions of the mapping and modding community heard, don’t miss out!

During this meeting, we will discuss the current state of hybrid (multiple game mode) mapsets and possible changes to their implementation, as well as the future of how to handle metadata after disbanding the Quality Assurance Team's metadata branch.

Summary

by JBHyperion

Hopefully you've found something to interest you in this month's mapping and modding news, but we must now turn our attention swiftly back to the present. There will always be more exciting times to come and we look forward to what the rest of the year may hold — even if for some it means the return to school and university. There's more to life than circles and sliders after all!

See you next time!

—JBHyperion & Raiden