Project Loved: Week of October 27th

Project Loved warmly welcomes you to the latest community grab-bag of high profile maps.

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 its voting thread.

We've decided to roll out (or at least, start to enforce) a couple changes to rules that we've been somewhat lenient on. We will no longer allow mappers to add/remove difficulties from their mapset once it reaches the voting phase. This is meant to prevent a mapper from silently adding a plethora of guest difficulties to a mapset that the community will more or less not be voting for. Slight changes to the existing difficulties (aesthetics, hitsounding, etc.) will still be allowed.

If you do choose to make major changes to your beatmap, it will be treated as a separate map and will need to be re-chosen by the captains at a later date.

In case you don't read to 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. For osu!mania, please use this Google form and this Google sheet instead.

Navigation

• osu!standard
• osu!taiko
• osu!catch
• osu!mania

osu!standard

osu!standard Loved candidates were chosen by DigitalHypno! This week, all osu!standard beatmap descriptions were written by DigitalHypno.

RIOT - Overkill by Atalyth
174 BPM, 5:16 | 7.37★

Have you been looking for a unique marathon map of a banger of a dubstep song that you can jam out to while you play? This 7-star map by Atalyth might be just what you're looking for. The map has long spaced streams in the build-up sections followed by kickslider jumps and buzzsliders in the kiai sections that capture every "wub" sound. The rest of the map does a great job building up tension to prepare you for the next difficulty spike. So, ready to bop your head? Give this map a challenge if you think you have what it takes.

kamome sano - tarte tatin by -PC
152 BPM, 2:56 | 6.57★

Groovy song by kamome sano? Check. Satisfying alt patterns and rhythms? Check. Comfortable BPM of 152? Check. What more could you ask for in a map? It's fun for the whole family! At least, for the ones who play osu!, that is. Be sure to check this one out if technical flow aim is your niche.

goreshit - fly, heart! fly! by Anmiy
201 BPM, 2:53 | 6.36★, 6.36★

This upbeat, 201 BPM goreshit song was mapped in the quintessential 2013 style. It's got a fair balance of jumps and streams throughout the entire map, rounding out at a challenging—yet playable—6 stars. AR 9 and AR 10 versions of the same map are both available so you can choose the density you prefer. It's a pleasant map to play, so give it a go if you haven't already!

bill wurtz - history of japan by doggu
180 BPM, 8:58 | 7.36★

You may have seen the famous YouTube video history of japan by bill wurtz, but did you know there's a super accurate osu! map of the whole thing? doggu's map of history of japan has gathered nearly 300 favorites, and for good reason. The unique patterns match the quirkiness of bill wurtz's style and the timing of the map is impeccably accurate. The map's difficulty reaches a bit over seven stars, but I guarantee you will encounter patterns in this map that you've never seen before. Play through the map yourself, and maybe learn a bit or two about history while you listen! Enable the background video for full effect.

Camellia - I Can Fly In The Universe by FaiVillager
175 BPM, 6:27 | 7.84★

FaiVillager flies into this universe with his hypertechnical, high 7-star map of this crazy, 175 BPM Camellia song. This 6-minute map is filled to the brim with challenging cutstreams, constant slider velocity changes, and the occasional 1/6 rhythm change. The map is fully hitsounded for your utmost enjoyment, so give the map a try if you've been itching for a unique technical map that can really push your limits.

osu!taiko

osu!taiko Loved candidates were chosen by -Kazu-, iceOC, jyake, nyanmi-1828 and Ulqui!

TK from ling tosite sigure - flower by Taka030
68 BPM, 2:15 | 6.45★
description written by Ulqui

Most well-known as the creator of two of the most interesting maps now in the Loved section, Taka030 makes an appearance again with flower. With a rather calm beginning, the map starts with notes mixed up with sliders, which no doubt gives it a beautiful touch that feels true to this relaxing tune, only to continue to the most intense sections on simple patterns at 270 BPM. These patterns are quite comfortable and well-flowing despite being rather demanding on the speed department, resulting in a fun experience for players of every kind.

Yuuyu - Iki o Koroshita Stokesia by yea
155 BPM, 5:29 | 6.62★
description written by jyake

Tech maps with the right balance of pattern choice can be hard to find. Too repetitive, and your map may lack the complexity we all desire from them. Too random, and, well, it just ends up feeling like a total mess. But yea's magnificent interpretation of Yuuyu's Iki o Koroshita Stokesia results in a very, VERY technical map that has the perfect balance of everything. From monos to rare and difficult 1/6 patterns, this map offers a variety of different skills possibly allowing you to consider this it as the ultimate tech map! As a bonus, there is a low SV version of the map, so you better get working on your reading skills!

osu!catch

osu!catch Loved candidates were chosen by Tenshichan, Sartan, Wesley and Yumeno Himiko!

Morimori Atsushi - Paradigm Shift by Emiru
145 BPM, 1:52 | 7.98★
description written by Tenshichan

Emiru is a well-known player and mapper whose maps are known for expanding horizons and pushing boundaries. The same applies to Paradigm Shift which a lot of players probably remember as one of the nomod picks in the Finals of the osu!catch World Cup 2018. The main attraction of this map is its creative usage of wiggle patterns. The BPM is only 145, which makes the wiggles feel really comfortable to play, especially when you don't have fast finger movement. The mapping compliments the song very nicely from start to finish. The map is hard but not too hard, which means people outside of the top 100 also have a chance of doing well. If you haven't played this map yet, you should—it's a lot of fun!

Diao ye zong feat. Meramipop - Shinkirou by F D Flourite
318 BPM, 7:08 | 9.00★
description written by Yumeno Himiko

Known for his evil and high-spacing jumps, F D Flourite is a maverick mapper with an amazing sense of mapping flow. His map for Shinkirou is no exception, with continuous jumps and antiflows hardly giving you time to rest or calm your nerves. Despite the gruesome patterns, the song itself also has drain time of 7 minutes, which serves as a great challenge for some players. Just one last thing: watch out for the 1/2 hyper-chains when you are enjoying this wonderful map!

osu!mania

osu!mania Loved candidates were chosen by Shoegazer, lenpai, Pope Gadget and Toaph Daddy!

pencil - little (girl) goodbye.rah by Elekton
200 BPM, 3:03 | [4K] 4.84★

Elekton has low-key been one of the most consistent charters in 2018. The charts that he made towards the end of the year such as LOSHAXI, Apollo11, and 4172756869 (isagen remix) were particularly strong, especially for a year that had been highly productive for multiple charters. Elekton, in our eyes, established himself as one of the best rice charters in osu!mania by the end of 2018.

However, this wave we are nominating his chart for little (girl) goodbye.rah, a chart that he made in August 2017. While the chart is over 2 years old at this point, it encapsulates Elekton's general layering approach very well—that is—heavy layering with mostly ergonomic patterns. little (girl) goodbye.rah is a very heavy breakcore track. There are lots of snares, consecutive heavy bass kicks, and loud cymbal crashes. The track calls for a very heavy chart, which made Elekton's charting approach a perfect fit for the track. The chart itself contains broken two-hand trilly dense jumpstream/handstream, jumpgluts, handjacks, and continuous dense jumpstream and handstream at 200 BPM—all patterns that are very dense and fit snuggly with the track.

There aren't too many tracks out there that would justifiably call for densely layered charts, and there aren't many charters who can execute a chart with heavy layering well. Elekton, who wasn't at his prime during the time he created little (girl) goodbye.rah, managed to make something very unique through excellent song choice and an intimate familiarity with heavy layering. That creation, we believe, is more than worthy for the Loved section.

Joji - SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK by Shoegazer and Valedict
98 BPM, 3:26 | [4K] 4.16★, [4K] 4.52★, [4K] 4.87★, [4K] 5.22★, [4K] 5.57★

Two well-known figures in the charting community—Shoegazer and Valedict—collaborate for their next contribution to the osu!mania Loved section. SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK is an experience that can't be found easily in this game or elsewhere in rhythm games. Dumps (and especially well-structured and fun dumps) are difficult to find, considering the many elements and possibilities that can go into patterning and rhythm choices. These two veterans, however, do a wonderful job of encapsulating both the mood and intensity of the song through this approach and effectively tie together the chart through repeated placements of doubles for specific sounds, mini-anchors to emphasize syllable movement in the vocals, satisfying mini-LNs and normal LNs, and pitch relevance throughout which are especially noticeable in the piano. Each of these elements come together to build up from a rather slow beginning and intro to the chorus into an extremely intense finish, encapsulating many elements and bumping the speed up to match the extreme nature of the song. Ultimately, the duo brings a fun and satisfying approach to a very smooth and dynamic song—something recognized by many players and something to be recognized by many more with its nomination for the Loved section.

Renard - Can’t Stop Lovin’ You by Nivrad00
96 BPM, 3:59 | [5K] 3.50★, [7K] 3.62★

It's been quite some time since we last had an SV chart for the 7K side of Project Loved, and we're going in with Nivrad00's Can't Stop Lovin' You!

The patterning is semi-rigid, which suits the mild breakcore-ish nature of the track. The emphasis of the map goes into the stops and mild speedups which flows well with the song's stops. With the help of some storyboard magic, the middle section comes in with an added bonus of a funny slider which adjusts the map's scroll speed scaling from x0.6 to x1.2. Nothing too serious here, but something definitely worth trying out if you want a good laugh, and not to mention, this map also comes with its original 5K difficulty, so that should be a treat for those itching for anti-meta maps!

From everyone on the Project Loved team, we hope you enjoyed this week's selection, and are looking forward to the next! The winning beatmaps will hit the Loved beatmap listing sometime next week and will be announced via @osugame on Twitter.

In addition to all of the Loved captains that choose the maps and write the descriptions, make sure to thank Noffy, PsychoStatic, huu and Ephemeral for their miscellaneous help in managing Project Loved.

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. For osu!mania, please use this Google form and this Google sheet instead.

—Toy