Beatmap Spotlights Test Run: Summer 2020

The new future of the Beatmap Spotlights is here with its very first test run, kicking off this very week! Check out the Summer Season map pool and read on to discover a plethora of new planned rewards and features for everybody who dares to compete in one of osu!'s newest competitive modes.

First of all, we are running this as an experimental implementation to get a good feel for a different way to enjoy osu! competitively. Many of the features are not implemented yet and will come online as the season goes on, so keep your eyes peeled for more exciting updates.

There is no guarantee on how this system and league will play out going forward, but your feedback and participation will help us shape this system into the best it can possibly be. For that, we have created a forum thread to collect feedback and criticism about the renewed Beatmap Spotlights. Alternatively, you can join us at the public community Discord server, visit the #osu-spotlights channel of osu!dev or leave us a comment below this news post to help us with this project going forward!

The new-and-improved Beatmap Spotlights are formed around the work of our freshly selected team of curators who have been working flat out over the past few months to bring you a selection of maps that showcases some of the best beatmapping osu! has to offer. While we were a little vague in our first announcement, the gloves are now well and truly off - check out how this new system is planned to work below:

• Every weekend in this season, we will be hosting a weekly timeshift lobby using a playlist created from the pool of curated beatmaps using osu!lazer. To participate, you'll need to download the latest release of osu!lazer, log in to your account, and check out the multiplayer section. Timeshift lobbies are basically persistent multiplayer rooms with their own scoreboards across a variety of maps, making them perfect for the Beatmap Spotlights. You can read more about them on peppy's blog, if you're interested in setting up your own later on.
• Each game mode will have their own leaderboards and Beatmap Spotlights playlists. If you beat drums for a living or have a fixation on fruit or keyboards, you're not going to be left out from all the fun.
• Every Monday, the playlist of beatmaps for the week will change, and the new ones will be unveiled on the Beatmap Spotlights wiki page. In the future, we hope to do weekly streams showcasing each week's maps similar to the World Cup mappool showcases.
• Your performance in each of the Beatmap Spotlights timeshift lobbies will be collated and calculated into a Seasonal Ranking that determines your place among the leaderboards. Depending on how you perform, you could earn a unique medal chronicling your success. Medals will be awarded starting from the 2nd week of the season, and will be updated every week to reflect your new position in the rankings. They will be implemented during the ongoing season.
• There will be four playlists in total, each consisting of 5 beatmaps, and each playlist will be played three times throughout the season. This gives you plenty of opportunities to revisit your weekly scores as only your best total score on a playlist will be considered for your position on the Seasonal Ranking.
• The Top 10 people of each timeshift lobby will be awarded with 1 week of supporter tag.
• At the end of the season, the best mapper of the season will be elected and given a special prize, and the Beatmap Spotlights mappool will be folded into a new beatmap pack with an accompanying medal that anyone can earn at any time once the season has concluded. We'll give you more details about the mmapper prize as they develop.

To see the new mappools for the debut week of the Beatmap Spotlights, you can visit the Beatmap Spotlights wiki page and follow the "Playlist" links in the sidebar. There's also a lot more information about the planned system in full there too, so make sure to check it out!

Just as an extra aside, we'd like to stress again that this is a test run of the new system - many things may change seemingly without warning throughout this current season, and we will be paying a lot of attention towards the feedback from those participating in it to help shape how we approach the real deal in the future.

Season Schedule

With that being said, the Summer 2020 season has been fully prepared and is ready to go.

The first timeshift lobby will open this Friday on the 10th of July, so be prepared!

Playlist A can be found on the Beatmap Spotlights wiki page. Remember that your seasonal badge will update every week once they've been given out.

Rewards

Depending on how you perform among the Seasonal Ranking, we plan to award you with a unique profile badge for the duration of this season. You'll only know your exact position when you're among the Top 50 of a given gamemode, but otherwise you'll be given a specific bracket tier to reflect your achievement. If you're familiar with the ranking systems of League of Legends or Apex Legends, this will not be particularly new to you.

In addition, the Top 10 players for each mode at the end of each week will be given 1 week of osu!supporter.

Badges	Bracket Tier	Placement
	Rhythm Incarnate	Top 50
	Diamond	Top 51 - 3%
	Platinum	3% - 10%
	Gold	10% - 25%
	Silver	25% - 50%
	Bronze	50% - 70%
	Copper	70% - 95%
	Iron	95% - 100%

This table only shows one of four badge versions. Each game mode has its own badge version.

Winter Spotlights results

We did not forget the winners of the Winter Beatmap Spotlights 2020. Congratulations to every single one of them! They will receive 3, 2, and 1 month of osu!supporter for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place respectively for their efforts!

• osu!: Kingling, Lkxemmeji, and Karmagyre
• osu!taiko: syaron105, AlvaroYL, and [Zeth]
• osu!catch: dika312, -Ken, and RAMPAGE88
• osu!mania: itourith, tsusai, and aiM_Violet

We hope you enjoy the first test run with this first new season of the year and that you are as excited about this as we are. See you this weekend in the upcoming lobby!

—Loctav