Project Loved: April 2020

Project Loved has been out of action for a while, but today we're back and kicking off a new cycle of getting those sweet, sweet leaderboards added to the unranked maps you love most.

It's been a little over 3 months since we had any new Loved maps (excluding MillhioreF's Waltz o' the Irish, of course—it would be a crime to not mention this work of art), but that hiatus is finally coming to an end. Originally, we wanted to take a break not only to give the team some well-earned rest, but also to consider some changes to the Loved voting system. For now, the changes we've decided on are small, but hopefully you'll notice some improvement in what Project Loved has to offer:

• New maps will be put up for vote once a month, instead of every two weeks. The relatively quick pace of Loved cycles seemed to be burning out the voters, so hopefully slower cycles will make it less tedious to keep up with Loved.
• I'll be leaving voting threads open for 10 days instead of 7, to complement slower cycles.
• Captains will no longer be required to pick the same amount of maps every round. It's natural that there will sometimes be a lot more interesting maps to push towards Loved, and sometimes not, so it didn't really make sense to require the same amount every time.
• Captains will sometimes pick maps that aren't very popular yet, but show potential to be enjoyed by a large audience. This has been happening a decent amount since before our break, but I just wanted to clarify that the captains vary their picks further than the top of the submissions sheet.

Let us know what you think of these tweaks in the comments, on the forum, or in the #osu-loved channel of osu!dev. We're always open to new changes, big or small.

Other than that, it's business as usual once again. Check out what the captains have picked for you this month!

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.

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osu!standard

osu!standard Loved candidates were chosen by Bubbleman, DigitalHypno and waywern2012!

Halozy - Genryuu Kaiko by Hollow Wings
173 BPM, 5:02 | 5.65★
description written by Bubbleman

Do you ever see a name, and stop to wonder where the legacy began? For Hollow Wings, this is it. Genryuu Kaiko is Hollow Wings' very favourite song, leading her to create this map as her very first offering to the mapping community. It has the same high effort structuring present in her later maps with an older feel to it, yet sadly it never made it to its intended destination, the Approved section. An incredible map in its own right, you owe it to yourself to give it a look and see where one of the most recognisable names in mapping started out.

t+pazolite - tsugisogi reconstruction (for the X) by RLC
120 BPM, 8:22 | 6.31★
description written by Bubbleman

RLC's own "AR10 warmup map", and a marathon to boot, this 240 BPM track from t+pazolite on paper looks like the perfect base for an enjoyable experience—and it is. While it starts out at a hasty 240 BPM, about halfway through it kicks into a 280 BPM high gear, all while unrelentingly hitting you with jumps and occasional bursts over its 7 minute drain time. A fast-paced song and a fast-paced map while still sitting at the perfect difficulty to be playable by most, this map is a lot of fun to run through at least once or twice to warm up those reaction times. Sounds good to you? Get on it!

Dian Bo Feng - Duan Di Da Wang Nyanpasu by Startrick and Reol
180 BPM, 2:58 | 9.71★, 6.77★
description written by DigitalHypno

Here's a great map for those of you wishing there were more genuine TAG4 maps in the Loved section. This is a remix of Night of Nights featuring two difficulties in the mapset: a high 6-star map by Startrick, designed more for solo play, and a high 9-star TAG4 map by Reol, designed to be played using multiplayer's "Tag Co-Op" mode with four players. Just because it was designed to be played with four players doesn't mean you can't tackle the map yourself and try conquering a score on the solo leaderboard! This one's for you, you godly TAG4 enthusiasts.

Natsuko Aso - Lovely Girls Anthem (cobalt green EuroBeatRemix) by Midge and cRyo[iceeicee]
152 BPM, 4:09 | 4.64★, 5.23★
description written by DigitalHypno

This lovely 152 BPM Eurobeat remix of Lovely Girls Anthem is nothing short of catchy, and when paired with either of these maps by Midge and cRyo[iceeicee], it's nothing short of enjoyable. This mapset is overall super cozy to play, and it makes for a great map to practice with! Between the two difficulties in this mapset, there's fun to be had with every mod combination, so no matter what kind of player you are, be sure not to skip this one!

Kissing the Mirror x UNDEAD CORPORATION - Frozen Gear by -Ran Yakumo-
240 BPM, 3:44 | 10.02★, 7.97★
description written by waywern2012

This fast-paced 240 BPM map from -Ran Yakumo- will surely take you by surprise, as it tests both your stamina and aim skills at an absurd degree. The mapper truly captivated the song's potential in allowing for some extremely—and I mean extremely—difficult patterns. The mapset has two difficulties, one at around 8 stars and the other clocking in at a whopping 10 stars. Despite being so high in star rating, both difficulties play extremely well, so if you're really up for the challenge... your challenge is here waiting for you.

osu!taiko

osu!taiko Loved candidates were chosen by jyake and nyanmi-1828!

hanacco - LoveLoli with katagiri by KTYN et al.
260 BPM, 38:06 | 7.83★
description written by nyanmi-1828

To celebrate his 300th map, KTYN (a.k.a. KitajimaYN) invited well-known mappers to create this grand collaboration! Although boasting a length of a whopping 38 minutes, and possibly being the most prolonged and also speediest "super" stamina map Loved would have to offer, its first day saw dozens of result screenshots competing on Twitter and received over 20 favorites. If this isn't proof that it's Loved, I don't know what is! KTYN is a speed mapper who creates over three maps a week and is called the "chart manufacturing machine." He'll probably make it to 400 maps in a blink of an eye.

この譜面はKTYN(a.k.a. KitajimaYN)の300譜面目を祝って、有名マッパーたちが集まった超大作です！長さは38分で太鼓のLoved譜面の中でも一番長くスピードも速い、「超」体力譜面ですが、投稿初日からTwitterには数十個ものリザルトがあげられ、favは20個以上にも及びました。これはまさに愛されている証拠とも呼べるでしょう！KTYNは1週間に3つ以上の譜面を作る異常なまでのスピードマッパーで、「譜面制作マシン」とも呼ばれています。きっと400譜面目までも秒読みでしょう。

Mrs. GREEN APPLE - Ao to Natsu (katagiri Bootleg) (Sped Up Ver.) by HEKUSODASU, Shallty and KTYN
240 BPM, 3:32 | 6.42★, 6.78★, 6.51★
description written by jyake

Quality! That's all I see in this. It isn't a gimmick or unique concept that makes this map by HEKUSODASU stand out, it's just the insane amount of polish and thought that appears to have gone into every one of those 1749 objects placed. I can't think of a single part in this map that feels off; don't even ask me how someone can commit to a single piece this much. Don't give this a pass. Play it and see if you can prove me wrong!

osu!catch

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

RedScreen - Calameme Fortune by Bunnrei
200 BPM, 2:18 | 7.87★
description written by Wesley

Starting off the Loved rotation, we have a pretty famous song in the osu!catch community, Calameme Fortune. Wait, Cala"meme" Fortune? Yeah that's right, a remix of the well known Calamity Fortune. The star rating of the map is "only" 7.87, but don't let that fool you. There are a bunch of different patterns coming through, varying from normal streams to wiggles and stairs. The high approach rate with the BPM really compliments the variety of patterns since it requires quite some speed to keep up with some of them. Can you keep up with the map while still holding a combo?

penoneri - Preserved Valkyria by Kyuare, Hareimu, Lacrima and Nelly
155 BPM, 1:59 | 5.90★, 3.26★, 4.49★, 2.23★
description written by Sartan

Would you look at that: four osu!catch maps in this round of Loved! Thanks to this, we were able to play around more with the type of maps we could pick, and vary more than usual. Hence why I am hereby bringing you a nice and calm Kyuare mapset. Preserved Valkyria has four difficulties, ranging from a Salad to an Overdose, which enables players from all levels to check out this map. There is also plenty of room to play around with mods on this map for the more advanced players. Back when this mapset was released, it was quite a popular pick in multiplayer lobbies, but that hype has since died out; the map is four years old after all. The quality of the map is still top-notch though, Kyuare mapping penoneri has always been a treat. Anyway, I have preserved this valkyria long enough from you already, there is plenty to discover in this mapset. Go check it out!

Sally - Remind by Del
270 BPM, 5:20 | 6.08★
description written by Yumeno Himiko

In Spring one sleeps, unaware of dawn; everywhere one hears crowing birds. The map chosen for the Loved section this round is Sally - Remind by well-known player Del. The map itself is not too hard, but it contains a lot of wiggles, which fit the song perfectly. Although Del has no Ranked maps nor Loved maps for now, this map is definitely high quality and good for practice. With the spring feelings brought by this song, we wish you enjoy the map and your life in this abnormal spring!

Gls - The Flawless Wings of Yatagarasu by ExGon and DakkyChan
170 BPM, 3:53 | 15.79★
description written by Tenshichan

It has been a while, so let's start the new Project Loved rotation with a bang. This is a collab between two of the most iconic players of osu!catch: ExGon and DakkyChan. If you are familiar with the history of Project Loved, then you are aware that those names are not unknown to our selection of maps. At the Speed of Light, for example, is a previous ExGon and DakkyChan collab that has been Loved. One of their trademarks in mapping is that they make their maps unforgivingly hard. The Flawless Wings of Yatagarasu is no exception. Like most of their other creations, this map has a lot of unique and creative patterns that are, despite their difficulty, really fun to play. If you are looking for a tough challenge, then this map should be right up your alley. Definitely make sure to give it a try!

osu!mania

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

Camellia - Arche by -mint- and Kamuy
200 BPM, 5:09 | [4K] 5.43★

The opener for the osu!mania Loved section's return is a highlight on more than one front. A curator for hype through a multitude of qualities, even a beauty in many respects, and an overall enjoyable time brought by -mint- and Kamuy, it is their chart for Arche. Camellia songs are sure to bring the hype, and Arche is certainly no exception to that rule. The chart also backs this up beautifully, with many difficult sections covering a vast array of skill sets. Given it was made as a tiebreaker for this past year's osu!mania 4K World Cup, it's no wonder that -mint- and Kamuy made it this way, including speedy bursts, some tech-jacks, minor SVs, and a brutal LN section coming in during the second half, culminating in an extremely all-rounded chart that can appeal to a wide audience. The two's goals were met and more, leading to an overall very positive reception from MWC and beyond, giving it a very fitting place among the Loved nominations.

Eleharmonica remixed by kors k - Der Wald (kors k Remix) by snoverpk
170 BPM, 1:59 | [4K] 6.03★

snoverpk, as many high-level players know, has his fair share of extremely difficult charts, like Angel Dust and EXILE, made to test the very limits of the capabilities of the best of the best StepMania and osu!mania players. Der Wald is a prime example of one of these charts, with some of the fastest light jumpstreams in the game, clocking in at a blistering 340 BPM, with some small snap changes to throw it off just a bit. This is all without mentioning the brutal patterning in these streams along with the middle section containing a couple of 510 BPM bursts, blowing almost any other chart in the game out of the water in terms of pure speed and difficulty. This extreme speed that is tested in this chart has made many a top player flock to it, very commonly used as a practice chart for the very best. This makes it notorious and very well-known through the community, and makes it very deserving of a Loved nomination.

(Various Artists) - Jumpstream Of Fighters Vol. 2B by Leo137, Manwon, swiftwinter, AZVW_2 and blazziken
200 BPM, 14:19 | [4K], 4.74★ – 6.02★
The [(Marathon) - Delete Upon Download] difficulty is not being nominated for Loved.

There's some more StepMania coming your way with about half of a very popular pack released back in late 2016, being the Jumpstream Of Fighters 2 pack! As the name is likely to tell you, the pack is themed around a range of jumpstream difficulties. This is not all that the pack has to offer, including some easier jack-based gameplay in the Medium chart for satori de pon! and the dump streams and tech found in Live Nor Die. With many of the charts having relatively simplistic structure and straightforward gameplay, the pack gained immense popularity among the StepMania players it was released for at the time, and of course, has maintained a level of recognition and popularity in osu!mania for similar reasons. This is a callback to some of the charting styles used a few years ago, and a shoo-in for the Loved section.

EGOIST - The Everlasting Guilty Crown by eZmmR, upan and -Muses-
172 BPM, 5:18 | [4K] 6.35★

eZmmR and upan are back in the Loved nominations with a new face, -Muses-, presenting their collab for The Everlasting Guilty Crown! eZmmR fans will immediately know what's up with this pick, and given him and his friends' past endeavors, the style should be more than well known to the community. Very difficult and varying LN patterns, including LN streams, release play, inverse of course, and even the occasional rolly stream to spice things up just a bit. Transitioning between these different skills, whether it's just from normal LN streams to inverse or an entire switch-up in mapping style between eZmmr, upan, and -Muses-, can be very difficult, but it is always satisfying to play and hit properly. The training potential that many of eZmmR's maps share is through the roof, and the fun factor is of course up there too, making it no wonder that they have become the powerhouse in LN charting that they are. The Everlasting Guilty Crown proves to be more than a fitting return for eZmmR in the Loved section.

void - Sudden Romance by _underjoy and anti-
152 BPM, 4:39 | [7K] 6.98★, [7K] 7.44★, [7K] 8.42★, [7K] 5.84★, [7K] 6.63★

Chordjack-oriented charts are definitely a rarity in osu!mania 7K, but Sudden Romance takes this pattern into full force. Presenting three different levels of difficulties, two of which have short versions, Sudden Romance provides 152 BPM 1/3rd chordjack action. Ranging from consistent triples on the lowest diff to continuous 5-note chords with 7-note presses on the top diff, this set should serve as a decent challenge and practice for anyone looking forward to smashing some chords.

Sota Fujimori - polygon by Player0
174 BPM, 1:54 | [7K] 3.25★

polygon is probably one of the most innovative storyboard charts we have to date. Throwing away the visual bounds of 7K, polygon manages to deliver something new to the table with visual gimmicks like that seen in VOEZ. Changing keycounts? Moving lanes? Notes going off-lane with variable speeds? This has it! Major props to Player0 for setting the bar and also revealing what can be done with storyboard notecharting for osu!mania. For non-7K or osu!mania players out there, even just watching this an autoplay is worth the effort and this is something definitely worth seeing.

From everyone on the Project Loved team, we hope you enjoyed this month's selection, and are looking forward to the next! The favoured beatmaps will hit the Loved beatmap listing sometime next week.

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.

—clayton