Project Loved: Week of November 10th

Project Loved is back on the menu. Make yourself feel right at home!

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.

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 and waywern2012!

Ito Kanoko - fake me (samfree's Science Adventure Dance Remix) (Sped Up Ver.) by Nattu
220 BPM, 1:40 | 6.89★, 7.51★
description written by DigitalHypno

You may have thought that you had all the most fun graveyarded maps out there, but if you don't have this map, you may want to revise your collections. This mapset features two 7-star difficulties, one featuring mostly jumps, and the other featuring mostly streams. The lively, upbeat energy from this 220 BPM song makes these maps even more enjoyable than they would be otherwise, and that's quite a feat. Despite the song being under two minutes in length, I suggest you set aside some time before you try these maps—you might find yourself playing them more than once.

Death Grips - Lord of the Game (feat. Mexican Girl) by handsome
180 BPM, 3:24 | 6.31★
description written by BeasttrollMC

Did someone say perfect overlaps, funky sliders, an equally funky song, and a bunch of other super cool patterns? If you're looking for a unique new map to learn that's not extremely protruding with its gimmick, you'd be wasting your time by not checking out this awesome map right now. You won't regret it.

lapix - Nothing but Theory by azr8, Jace and Akali
160 BPM, 2:02 | 6.07★, 7.23★
description written by DigitalHypno

If you've been looking to prove your technical and alternating skills while jamming out to the masterful neurofunk of lapix, you need to download this map. Both of the maps in this two-difficulty mapset feature fluid jumpstreams, tricky sliders, and technical rhythms.

The lower difficulty, a collab between azr8 and Jace, is a definite challenge that gets your fingers moving to the song. If that's too easy for you, Akali's 7-star guest difficulty is more than enough to challenge even the best players who come across this map—it takes all the theory from the lower difficulty and amplifies it to much crazier extremes. You won't want to miss out on either of these amazing maps, so be sure to try them both!

USAO - Dynamite (Camellia's MACHO TNT REMIX) by Slaked
222 BPM, 4:10 | 6.77★
description written by DigitalHypno

USAO and Camellia are both incredible artists, but what happens when you put them together? Well, to save you the work of figuring it out yourself, it's awesome. What's even more awesome is Slaked's incredible, high 6-star masterpiece of a map to go along with the song. Actually, you should still try to figure it out yourself, because these words truly can't do it justice. Check it out.

Porter Robinson - Flicker by Cyllinus, ryuu and Alonevpk
92 BPM, 4:32 | 1.68★ – 5.43★
The [Cyllinus's Hard] difficulty is not being nominated for Loved.
description written by DigitalHypno

Many of you may know this map already. It's a jumpy, 7-difficulty spread that actually used to be Loved in the past. If you've never seen this mapset before, the favourite count of over 1,500 might be a sign that you'll want to give it a try. Be sure to drop your vote. After the mapper pulled the mapset out of the Loved category to make some adjustments, it's time for it to go back up for voting!

osu!taiko

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

Akhuta - Ludus in Tenebris by Nyan
252 BPM, 1:54 | 1.24★, 2.74★, 4.04★, 5.06★, 5.88★
description written by Ulqui

As one of those maps that meant the "calm before the storm" in the osu!taiko World Cup 2019, we bring Ludus in Tenebris. This is a good example of maps created in an era where, while Taiko mapping was already reaching its maturity, it was quite far from what currently stands as the standards for good maps and still is liked by players nowadays. It is a cool map because as map with an average BPM and really low-risk mapping, it shines through its snap changes meaning you've got to be fast enough to hit the 1/2 and 1/4 sections and accurate enough to react to its swingy patterns on 1/3 exactly on the rather ambiguous style of Akhuta.

sasakure.UK - The illegaL QueeN by tkdLolly
180 BPM, 4:34 | 7.02★
description written by -Kazu-

And representing the "storm" we mentioned before, The illegaL QueeN, one of the most fearsome maps in the Grand Finals pools for the osu!taiko World Cup 2019 was one we wanted to bring to the Loved section the most after seeing how it made our finalists struggle through it and give us all the chance to see what incredible scores we could have witnessed on this hellish though exquisite map. We could say that tkdLolly's mapping is nowadays unfamiliar to nobody, and this is a perfect example of the masterpieces he brings to us: excellent usage of SV as a tool to emphasize his mapping, perfect placement of bursts in his patterns that are unbelievably tricky yet reasonable to hit, and a musical sense that creates a great playing experience. For all this, we hope to see the competition in this map and really surprising, highlight-worthy scores.

osu!catch

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

android52 - super anime groove 3d world by Spectator et al.
124 BPM, 1:24 | 2.14★ – 7.77★
description written by Wesley

This mapset really is something. Spectator and everyone else who participated are already quite known in the osu!catch mapping community. Spectator himself made a few difficulties mimicking Drafura and Starrodkirby86's mapping styles, and yet another one with his own style.

Every difficulty in this mapset has a very unique feeling to it. Not one of the difficulties plays the same—everyone did their own thing whether it is low or high approach rate, low or high circle size (or even both!)—it really has everything. Try it out and see for yourself!

LIQU@. - Yotogibanashi no Kamikakushi by Kyptoric
240 BPM, 1:49 | 7.19★
description written by Sartan

Kyptoric is back in for some loved action again! Yotogibanashi no Kamikakushi is one of his most popular maps that isn't too difficult for most high end players to attempt, having been used in various tournaments and having seen plenty of play in multiplayer lobbies as well. The map itself is fairly straightforward, mostly consisting of jumps with few stream section thrown around here and there. It is very satisfying to play through—the song also being something that tends to appeal to most of the community. The map can be quite challenging for players on the lower end, but is very well doable and even fcable on the higher end of the playerbase, even with hardrock and/or hidden being applied. I am definitely recommending you to give this Kyptoric map a spin, even if you didn't quite like his others maps that have been Loved so far, as this one is quite more streamlined, yet very fun.

osu!mania

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

Camellia - Lunatic Rough Party!! by Fullerene-
120 BPM, 1:54 | [4K] 5.63★

It's the year 2015, and, courtesy of charters such as Wafles from StepMania, dump charts for drumstep and neurofunk are all the rage. Camellia is starting to get extremely popular in 4K VSRGs, and players have started to accept a more technical bursty approach to dump charting. However, there weren't any bursty dump charts that were particularly hard. dreamless wanderer was pretty hard, but nowhere as hard for some of the best players.

Enter Fullerene's Lunatic Rough Party!!—an aggressively layered rendition of one of Camellia's catchiest songs in Sound Voltex. The chart opens up with 180 BPM 1/4 jumpgluts with easy patterns, 160 BPM 1/4 anchors and 360 BPM 1/4 bursts with medium-difficulty patterns. The first few sections of the chart, by themselves, already pose massive difficulties for high-level players, but the chart doesn't relent after its first bass wobble section. Players then would be bombarded by myriads of 3-note 360 BPM bursts and, at the very last section of the chart, a 400 BPM iteration of the first bass wobble section. The chart was so hard that it was used in the Finals mappool of 4K MWC 2017, and it was considered the second hardest rice chart of that pool.

Despite the chart being well over 4 years old at this point (the chart was only uploaded 3 years ago), there aren't many charts like Lunatic Rough Party—its difficulty is very high for a technical dump chart, and most dump charts at its difficulty level are far more straightforward. Lunatic Rough Party is also nicely executed. Despite the frenetic pace of the chart, the chart's structure is mostly self-evident and a fair challenge. This chart has been, unfortunately, fairly overlooked over the past two years, even though the chart itself seems to be on an island of its own. So why not give this chart a spin? Or rather, do you wanna party?

Gems - Gems Pack 14 - LN Master 6th by gemboyong
168 BPM, 5:28 | [4K] 4.09★, [4K] 5.62★, [4K] 5.80★, [4K] 6.83★

It's about time we bring in a pack from Onta_Metalslug (previously, and more well-known as gemboyong), and the choice we make for it is Gem Pack 14, or his 6th LN Master Pack. This pack contains four 7k inspired long note charts, ranging in difficulty from rather simple in Pink Gold, to brutally difficult and requiring great consistency in Other Side and Tsubomi. Because of the difficulty range and approachability of the charts in all of gem's LN Master packs, they have been extremely useful over the course of the past 2 years as LN training for aspiring high level LN players as well as all-rounders. The sheer popularity, recognizability, and usefulness of these packs has developed and been maintained over time, even with the influx of new LN maps and LN mappers. This combination of qualities more than makes Gem's LN Master 6th a worthy pack for inclusion in the Loved section.

Nobunaga - Shinkai Shoujo by Cuppp
137 BPM, 3:31 | [7K] 5.31★

Prepare yourselves for yet another serving of Cuppp noodles cause we're having Shinkai Shoujou for this round! While being a much easier map compared to most of their other stuff, Shinkai Shoujou has quite the exposure from seeing play in MWC 7K 2017 semis and an early iteration of the Jinjin dans. At a seemingly harmless speed of 137 BPM, the map requires some O2Jam fundamentals when it comes to finger independence. Column specific inversions at 1|2|3, 5|6|7, and 1|3|5|7 are used noticeably with occasional anchors that gets paired with 1/4 trilling. Not very scary but it can be a little tasking while trying to hold other noodles. Topped off with some isolated quirky patterns, Shinkai Shoujou may be a neat little chart to look back at for those who struggled to master LNs back in the day.

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