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10 Sep 2018
Project Loved: Week of September 9th
Project Loved: Week of September 9th
Project Loved returns again with picks in all four modes! Come check out the set, and vote for your favourites!
Welcome back to Project Loved! Every two weeks, we pick out a few beatmaps from each game mode that will get their shot at making it into the Loved category. From the maps we selected, you can now vote whether or not you want them to be Loved! Click on each map's header image in this post to be taken to their voting threads.
osu!taiko returns this week from its break, and the team will be selecting four maps per round. They've heard your feedback from the discussion thread that was open for the last two weeks, and will do their best to incorporate it into the picks from now on! Though they didn't make it in time to help out for this week, we're also welcoming two new captains for osu!taiko: nyanmi-1828 and -[ ix Ishida xi ]-!
As a sort of experiment this week, Toy decided to crank up the threshold for osu!standard from 80% to 90%. This will hopefully draw a finer line between maps that deserve to be moved to Loved and those that have just gained some momentary fame from a community influencer. If this proves to work out, we'll just stick with 90% for osu!standard going forward.
Just some minor updates this week, folks!
In case you don't read the end of this post, be sure to submit suggestions for beatmaps to be added to Loved using the Google form! All of the nominated beatmaps are chosen from submissions on this form, which you can view in the corresponding Google sheet.
Navigation
osu!
osu! Loved candidates were chosen by Toy and DigitalHypno!
B-ko(Cv:Touyama Nao) - Nisemono Chuuihou by Musty et al.
written by DigitalHypno
Do you ever play through the slow intro section of a map and just wish it would go faster? And faster? And faster? Introducing Nisemono Chuuihou, a full mapset by Musty ranging from mid 1* to a seemingly impossible 8*. As the song progresses through its 3:30 length, its BPM increases from already crazy speeds to even crazier speeds, not forgetting to slow down every so often for musical effect. Accompanied by the 210+ players who have this map favorited, I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that every difficulty in this mapset does an amazing job capturing the song's intensity in a way that's exciting to play.
Gohma - Forward by Evgerable
written by DigitalHypno
This song, Forward, definitely has a jumpy feel to it. Evgerable captured this feeling masterfully in his mapset of 5 different difficulties. The star ratings range from low 5 stars to mid 7 stars, filling every gap in-between, so no matter what skill level you're at, you're sure to find a difficulty you enjoy. The gimmick of this mapset is slightly larger CS than the norm, with most difficulties using CS 3.6 and the bottom difficulty using CS 3.2. If that sounds like your thing, come join the 200+ players who already have this mapset favorited, and be sure to vote it for loved!
DECO*27 - Ghost Rule by val0108, Kenterz, z1085684963 and caren_sk
written by DigitalHypno
A song popularized by a few other mapsets in the Ranked and Loved categories, this mapset of Ghost Rule with four different difficulties from four different mappers—Kenterz, val0108, z1085684963 and caren_sk—does a great job capturing the song in styles that aren't offered by the other sets. It certainly shows, too: the mapset has over 190 favorites, and that number is sure to increase. Whether you're a fan of unconventional flow or large, flowy, full screen jumps, this mapset has something for you.
Muzzy - Calling Out (feat. KG & Skyelle) 205 by elchxyrlia
written by Toy
If you've played one lahphnya map, you've played them all. Right? I'm not here to answer that, but if that's the case, then whatever elchxyrlia is doing, he's been doing it right for years. Yet another nearly 200 favorite Speed Up Ver. of an already exciting fast paced song, mixed with spaced streams and full screen jumps, all set to roast together in the oven and you've got a decked out 8* mammoth of a map.
senya - Iro wa Jou e to Izanau by Momizi, Spring Roll, Mikagura Seisa and FreeSongs
written by Toy
Psst, hey you. Do you like storyboards? This unfortunately abandoned full mapset of a gorgeous senya song has the start of what looks to be an extremely promising storyboard. Floating flower petals, lyrics flying on-screen, even a musically synchronized changing of lunar phases. Though as disappointing it is to see something like this left to rot for a full year, the mapping on every difficulty is fully complete and fantastic to boot featuring GDs from Spring Roll, Mikagura Seisa and FreeSongs.
Opacha - Opacha by Morbon
written by DigitalHypno
Ah, a classic. Over the last three years since this map was submitted, this silly yet catchy song of Opacha has accumulated over 160 favorites. The mapset only has one difficulty, fittingly named "Opacha". Despite its short length of 1:22, the mapper, Morbon, was able to fit all kinds of different jump and stream patterns to capture the energetic and moving pace of the song. If you're not sure what I mean, give the map a play or two! When you've done that, as always, don't forget to vote on whether or not this map should be included in the Loved category!
Doda - Dziekuje by -NeBu-
written by Toy
A wonderfully bright song paired with exciting 7* jumps marks -NeBu-'s latest energetically Polish creation. It may be one of the most delightful jump maps I've had the pleasure of playing as of late, from the song choice to the jump patterns, to the pretty star sliders littered throughout the map. It's received a deserved 160+ favorites in around a year, and for a song about overcoming fear and flying to the stars, these feelings perfectly parallel the euphoria of actually hitting all the jumps.
Helblinde - Grief & Malice by Necroluttah
written by Toy
If you've been a fan of the harsher jump maps that have been included in the Loved section, but just aren't quite there yet in skill to play them, Necroluttah's Grief & Malice from 2015 is sure to scratch that same itch for you. High velocity sliders, not-quite-so-fullscreen jump patterns, and a hot track from the wonderful Featured Artist Helblinde all mesh together for a 160+ favorited cocktail of hype-ass mapping.
Kobaryo - Tool-Assisted Speedcore (TQBF Frame Advance RMX) by Mismagius
written by Toy
Can you please play The Big Black?. These words have haunted popular players for six long years, and now Mismagius has finally brought us a glimpse of what could be The Big Black 2. It's rougher, meaner, and overall a hell of a lot less forgiving. The slider jumps are quicker, the streams are more spaced, the buzz sliders are faster so for those of you who wished The Big Black could have offered a bit more of a challenge, you'll find exactly what you're looking for here.
K A Z M A S A - RTCMON by BarkingMadDog
written by DigitalHypno
Are you looking for another cute song and fun map to add to your collections? Or maybe you're looking for a good map to practice stream aim and control? If you said yes to either of those questions, you'll definitely want to try RTCMON. This map by BarkingMadDog features flowy yet challenging stream patterns at a comfortable 160 BPM, and the consistent rhythm keeps the map engaging for its entire 3:19 duration. The map already has 146 favorites—will you be the next?
osu!taiko
osu!taiko Loved candidates were chosen by Backfire, -Kazu- and iceOC! This week, all osu!taiko beatmap descriptions were written by Backfire.
star anis - Adult Mode [YUC'e Remix] by hoku
For the first map of this cycle, we have "Adult Mode" from hoku, a mapper you may be familiar with if you enjoyed the "Heaven's Fall" mapset we Loved a few cycles ago! hoku has been blazing a trail in the mapping scene lately with a lot of maps that garnered acclaim, this being one of his most popular! hoku's song choices have a big factor into why his style works so well, so you can tell why it's popular immediately: the exciting and fresh music mixed with his extremely comfortable mapping style makes this a treat for its players.
Various Artists - PEPPY FIX TAIKO STAR RATING PLEASE for a happier by ARGENTINE DREAM et al.
Over 60 difficulties and a clear cry for help, PEPPY FIX TAIKO STAR RATING PLEASE for a happier *insert name* is a mash-up made by ARGENTINE DREAM of four infamous taiko maps, those being "MANIERA" by _yu68, "HELIX (Edit ver.)" by hikiko-, "Cycle Hit" by Axer and "Slash Dot Slash" by Backfire (me). All four of these maps have one thing in common: they give tons and tons of pp. Now, it's debatable the quality of all four of these maps, and while Dream gives a rather lengthy statement in the description of this mapset, this set is very interesting because it features such a wide variety of mappers you may be familiar with. Honestly I think it might be okay to call this the taiko version of a shitpost?
A piece of osu!taiko World Cup lore, this is "Shunyata" by tasuke912. However, some of you may know it as "Out Now on Crowsnest", which was actually a pretty cute metadata error by tasuke caused by the title of the post he got the song from specifying that it was being released on a music service called "Crowsnest". This all contributes to a pretty memorable map that was featured in this year's TWC as a NoMod pick for the semifinals, and if you've seen the map, you'll know it features very intense slow sections that are extremely complex. This map works well as a companion piece with tasuke's already Loved map, "Primula", as they are both very complex and interestingly structured maps!
As with many kobaryo songs, this is speedcore, and I mean truly intense speedcore. 360 BPM and very complex, vzk shows us how it's done with his first foray into the Loved section. HUG AND KILL has two difficulties, both of which represent the song and music perfectly, as the easier of the two "nerf" doesn't pull punches on where the song really needs emphasis. "Hell" is the much more difficult of the two, but most of the elite players who enjoyed Loved maps will probably find this difficulty more enjoyable!
osu!catch
osu!catch Loved candidates were chosen by Zak, Ascendance, Sartan and Tenshichan!
petit milady - Koi wa Milk Tea by Catch The Beat et al.
written by Ascendance
Taking a break from the standard super-hard loved map submissions, we present to you a super solid map that truly misses the presence of a leaderboard. Featuring a spread for players of all skill levels, this set should have enough for everyone to enjoy, whether it be a clash of styles in Rains, an Overdose with some 1/3 wiggles and strong anti-flow patterns. All in all, Catch The Beat's "Koi wa Milk Tea" set really drives home an enjoyable experience from an otherwise ordinary song, bringing an entertaining and engaging time with its sweet simplicity!
Amane - Space time[Amane Hard core Remix] by [224]Hyperw7
written by Tenshichan
Space time is not what you expect of an average very-hard map. The whole thing is filled with patterns designed to make your playing experience a nightmare. But exactly that, the difficulty and uniqueness of the patterns used, is what makes this map fun to play. You can challenge yourself to catch as many of the patterns as you can or to hold the accuracy as high as possible—getting a B rank is already a challenge, even for very experienced players. It may be unforgiving, but it's an incredible challenge. Fly like a spaceship!
osu!mania
osu!mania Loved candidates were chosen by Kamikaze, _underjoy, aitor98, Pope Gadget and TheToaphster!
Suguro - Sun Valley (K2 Remix) by Guilhermeziat
written by TheToaphster
Speed, speed, and more speed is what Brazilian monster Guilhermeziat is subjecting players to in this round's first mania selection, Sun Valley. The chart starts you out slow with some 262 BPM very light jumpstreams, but then unloads to reveal extraordinarily fast light jumpstreams at a whopping 350 BPM. This theme of extremely fast light jumpstreams is the main staple of the chart, and only takes a break once before resetting and going straight back into it, only the second time around it is with a vengeance, turning up the awkwardness and increasing the density.
Everyone and their moms have heard of this map and, in the same way, many people adore it for the straightforward nature of the streams, even though they are full of staple Guilhermeziat awkwardness. Thus, we feel it has a very deserving spot in the Loved section.
puru - Toki (maidable remix) by Shoegazer
written by _underjoy
There are many technical charts, but very few are as well-executed as Shoegazer's Toki (maidable remix). maidable's rendition of a well-known BMS song by puru, Toki, introduces extreme amounts of erraticness and renders players confused about what is going on within the song.
This chart contains the very essence of Shoegazer's style. Although it seems crazy and chaotic, its structure is very coherent, with emphasis on chord repetition, which is a concept very well utilised by the mapper. Because of these structural nuances, patterns in Toki differ from your typical map and are recognizable at the first glance. The second half of the map is where the fun starts—the jacks and bursts become really invasive and aggressive, yet fitting and reasonable at the same time. This experimental masterpiece definitely deserves a spot in the Loved category.
Neun_jack - Gypsy gets the Tek by LeiN-
written by TheToaphster
LeiN- is a charter best known for his extremely clean and effective style, especially when it comes to jumpstreams. Because of this, it should be no surprise that we are selecting his chart for Gypsy Gets the Tek as the next nominee for the Loved section. As would be expected from him, it consists of well-constructed jumpstreams with some bursts and polyrhythms thrown in to compliment it, with repetitive patterning being used constantly to match the repetitive nature of the song. The ending in particular does a great job showcasing this, which contains the same musical phrase repeated four times, with the third and fourth sped up—the use of the same patterns between phrases may seem like it would make for boring and repetitive gameplay, but actually display the intensity of the speed-up wonderfully. The popularity it has received for this and its use in tournament play give it plenty of reason to be accepted into the Loved section.
Hommarju - Rock It by Mage
written by _underjoy
Rock It by Hommarju, mapped by Mage, is probably one of the most energetic Long Note charts. It is remarkably enjoyable, and not only because of the fast nature of the song itself. Mage's idea was very simple and efficient—he focused only on the main melody and layered it consequently. The result is a very straightforward map focused on easy to understand and clean patterning. The main meat of the chart are streams made of extended long notes, which are preceded by simple inverse segments that switch columns in a repeated manner. Rock It is an example of what a LN chart of middle difficulty should look like, and we would like to welcome it to the Loved section.
(K)NoW_NAME - Knew day by Niima and shuniki
written by aitor98
Hello and welcome to your average LN map! This time, Niima is bringing us a set that features... Long Notes. Knew day has every kind of Long Note based pattern, such as shields, inverted chordstreams, irregular releases, and more. It also features two keymodes (4K and 7K) for those who want to have a taste of this O2Jam-style mapping.
xi - Grand Chariot by Arzenvald
written by aitor98
Arzenvald (also known as ExUsagi) has been around the community since the early days of osu!mania, and he still preserves that old-school mapping style, as we can see in this map, named Grand Chariot by xi. This set has a great amount of well-spread difficulties, making it accessible to anyone, and it also has a great variety of patterns. Even though it mostly predominates rice-based patterns, it does make a good usage of LNs, in order to maintain the chart as balanced as possible. It also features some really tricky jacks in the hardest difficulties of this set, as well as some broken chordstreams followed by a few sweeps every here and there, making this chart a jewel. Definitely something that deserves a chance to be Loved.
EBICO - Slit O by Nivrad00
written by aitor98
Nivrad00 is a known mapper that has been around the community for a decent amount of time, and he has made many charts that people enjoys during these years. Even though we could talk about him as a mapper, we are here to talk about his map, Slit O by EBICO. This chart is looks pretty straightforward at the beginning, having a slow paced start, followed by relatively light 165 BPM stair oriented doublestreams. It might look somewhat simple with that definition, but just wait... Once you are one third into the map, really heavy chords will start to pop in, followed by fast trills, which will lead to a sudden jump back into the chords in order to end such section of the map. After that, we will have a small break to rest our hands with basically similar patterning as in the beginning. The map will start building up slowly, until you reach its climax, where the chords appear again, but this time followed by really fast streams instead of trills, followed by tricky sweeps to end off the map.
Even though this map has only one difficulty and it might not be accessible for everyone, the quality of this chart is good enough to deserve a chance to join the Loved section.
The Flashbulb - Chik Habit by Jinjin
written by _underjoy
Our last pick is one of Jinjin's classics, Chik Habit by The Flashbulb! This chart was a part of the osu!mania 7K World Cup 2016 Quarterfinals map pool, as well as the last chart in the old Regular 5th Dan course.
This map is mostly focused on speed, challenging players with easy patterns, which, however, appear with such speed that they actually require some nimble fingers to hit properly. The main characteristic of this chart are very fast rolls, that are surprisingly comfortable to hit and go well with the song. The second half of the chart is a little faster than the first one, and requires even more dexterity to nail. We feel that its appearance in the Loved voting should not surprise anyone.
From everyone on the Project Loved team, we hope you enjoy this week's selection, and look forward to the next! The winning beatmaps will hit the Loved beatmap listing sometime next week and will be announced via @osugame on Twitter.
If you have any suggestions for beatmaps to be added to the Loved category, please submit them using the Google form! You can view the current submissions on the corresponding Google sheet.
—clayton
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