The Mappers' Report: July

Good news, everyone! We think we've perfected a news post formula that will inform you about everything mapping and modding-related going on in osu!.

This month's issue of the Mappers' Report contains the following topics:

• Ranking Criteria Changes
• Within the Beatmap Nominators and NAT
• Mappers' Showcase
• Mapping Contests
• Conclusion

Ranking Criteria Changes

This month, whilst there weren't many major proposals or Ranking Criteria changes, we focused on minor wording changes throughout.

osu!taiko

• Change the wording for "patterns faster than": This change aims to clear up some ambiguity in the wording of a Futsuu difficulty-specific rule.

osu!mania

• Redefining the "stream" terminology: Another change mainly aiming to make the terminology in the osu!mania Ranking Criteria as clear as possible. This change defines the length at which a pattern is considered a stream.
• Change chord guidelines in normal difficulties: This is the only non-wording based change this month. This change, with regards to 4K and 7K Normal difficulties, allows mappers to use chords during a long note hold as long as it's being played with the other hand.

Open Ranking Criteria Proposals

Every month, we keep you up to date with the changes to the Ranking Criteria. Additionally, we list open proposals so you can give your feedback to them! Below we listed all new proposals since the last issue of the Mappers' Report.

All Modes

• Treat official romanisation above RC standardisation
• Avoid spoilers in maps
• Clear metadata rules and add guidelines regarding mashups

osu!catch

• Remove "clear dashes" guideline on Platter difficulties

osu!mania

• Change some duplicated phrases in 7K hard guidelines

Within the Beatmap Nominators and NAT

New Beatmap Nominators have arrived! As with every month, we would like to present you with people you can request your pending maps to, just make sure to ask those proficient in the right game mode! Below are the lists of all additions and departures from this month!

Before we get to them though, we have some important announcements regarding the so-called "care package" which has had its first test in osu!taiko several months ago, along with a change regarding Beatmap Nominator applications and evaluations.

Activity lenience for returning Beatmap Nominators

Have you ever been a Beatmap Nominator before and would like to make a return? We have some great news for you! In the February issue of the Mappers' Report we mentioned that we applied a "care package" for osu!taiko that gave past Beatmap Nominators an easier way to return. Now the time has come and we will apply it to all game modes, starting with this announcement!
The following requirements apply for specific activity leniency:

• You must have been a member of the Beatmap Nominators in the past. This applies back to the date when the Beatmap Nominators were first created (past BAT times). This means that you will only need two months of modding activity in order to re-apply!
• You must have been a member of the Beatmap Nominators in the past year. Additionally, you must have left "on good terms", meaning that you have passed your last evaluation. If both apply to you, you will only need one month of modding activity to re-apply!

This has been tested on leaving Beatmap Nominators for a few months already, so you may already have the leniency if you've left recently.

We've got your interest? Great! When you are sure that the activity leniency can be applied to you, contact a Nomination Assessment Team member (preferably of your game mode, because they will most likely know if you were a Beatmap Nominator in the past)!

BN application and evaluation results will now be sent via chat

As you may already know, all messages regarding Beatmap Nominator applications and evaluations results used to be delivered through legacy pm system on the old osu! website. This is no longer the case. You will now receive a message through the website/in-game chat function once your application or evaluation has concluded. This message will contain a link that will lead you to the Beatmap Nominator website, where more detailed feedback can be viewed.

And now let's move on to the team movements for this month:

BN Additions

• osu!: -Aqua, Bibbity Bill, Log Off Now, C00L, Ayucchi & Hobbes2
• osu!catch: wonjae & -Joni-
• osu!mania: Arzenvald, lenpai & Davvy

Do you want to see your own name on this list? Do you like modding and helping other people with their beatmaps? If your answer to both of these questions is "yes", then you can also become a Beatmap Nominator! The applications are always open.

Head over to the Beatmap Nominator website and apply today!

BN Departures

• osu!: Peter, Kaitjuh, Icekalt & Rizen
• osu!taiko: Volta
• osu!catch: JBHyperion

NAT Additions

A new member in the Nomination Assessment has risen! Please welcome Scotty to the team! After around one and half a year as a Beatmap Nominator, he will now help the current osu!mania NAT with the Beatmap Nominator evaluations and make sure that the recent flow of new members will not break up.

Welcome aboard Scotty!

Mappers' Showcase

Another month, another Mappers' Showcase! However, the term "mapper" is maybe not the right one this time. Since the showcase has covered all game modes at least once, we thought we'd make something special this time. We would like to show you the work of storyboarders! As storyboarding can apply to all game modes, we thought it'd be the perfect moment to showcase some outstanding storyboarders this month!

This month got covered by Walavouchey with two excellent storyboarder picks!

ohm002

Having made quite a few storyboards in only the short span of, well, this year, ohm002 has been building up their repertoire trying out a lot of different ideas. While being newer in the scene, they managed to make a rather quick improvement that aspiring storyboarders might want to take a note of!

In their first ranked storyboard for Halozy - Paranoid Lost, ohm002 goes big and bold with lots of contrast between sections of the song. While not the cleanest in the technicalities, it sure gives a shocking impression and a unique playing experience.

In contrast, their recent work for HAG - Rokugatsu no Himitsu Kichi shows a rather clean and concise style with less particle effects. They demonstrate how a simple style can look good when you get the fundamentals right. There's clearly a lot of potential here and we look forward to seeing their future work!

PantyDev

As a long time storyboarder, PantyDev has an impressive variety in their portfolio. With storyboards ranging from simple and clean to complex and ambitious, they might just have the experience to compete with the best.

A unique storyboard to start with would definitely be their visualization for BoxPlot - Tramontane, basically turning the whole background into a swaying curtain. It's certainly a neat concept that not many storyboards use, though it may feel a bit dizzying.

Another great storyboard of theirs is the one for Krewella - Killin' It (Sped Up Ver.), featuring smooth background movement, flashing lights, chromatic aberration, and a whole lot more that makes one background absolutely pop.

Lastly, their work for ClariS - SHIORI is one of the more ambitious storyboards to hit the community. The different sections with their own cute details make the whole thing feel more like a music video than a storyboard.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg! Be sure to check out some of their many storyboards on other maps!

Do you happen to know any mapper or storyboarder who is rather unknown and makes awesome content? Then make sure to let us know! Submit their names through this form today!

Mapping Contests

Now, I hope you're ready because we're back with more news and information on the latest mapping contests happening right now, with more juicy details on results from concluding contests, and where you can participate in new and upcoming mapping contests!

Monthly Beatmapping Contests

The screening phase for July's MBC is well underway! The limitation this month was the circle size must be 0. Best of luck to all the mappers who entered!

As for results, results for both May and June's MBC have been announced, including the announcement of the first winner of the MBC grand prize!

May's contest concluded with 2 winners! Congratulations to both hypercyte who won both the community vote and "screening crew's favourite" categories, and to Acylica who was the community vote's runner-up! Further congratulations to hypercyte on being the first mapper to have won the MBC grand prize and earning the Elite Mapper title through the new Monthly Beatmapping Contests with an overall total of 7 points!

As for June, we congratulate Kalibe, xbopost and Sylas on winning MBC for this month! There was a 3-way tie this time so there will be no runner-up for this month. The scores between their entries were so thin, with an amazing display of work from all three of them. Mao and K4L1 also received honorable mentions for their creative entries which unfortunately did not score as high.

View the latest information regarding MBC in the wiki article.

osu! Beatmapping World Championship 2020

The osu! Beatmapping World Championship has progressed since last month and the round-of-16 matches have just concluded! Some results surprised everyone who were present during the results stream on Thursday. You can view the current results for the elimination rounds here.

Round of 16 results

As mentioned, many of these results blew everyone away. Special shout-out to Team Argentina who showed everyone they're not messing around, even against the 6.9% of predictions in the RO16 pick'ems!

Quarterfinals Match-ups

The Big Fans Mapping Contest

The mapping phase of the Big Fans mapping contest just ended on the 25th and the judging phase is currently underway. Best of luck to everyone who entered! Information about this contest can be found on the forum post.

Are there any other mapping contests going on, or being announced soon? Please let us know! We would love to give it more attention to the public. Doesn't matter if it's mode or language specific. Head over to the forum post where you can find the submission form!

And that's it for this month! We decided to not include the "Around the Community" section this time because we haven't heard of anything that would fit into it.

Now to some in-house advertising, we have moved! Prior to the move, we had our home on the Beatmap Nominator discord server, but now you can find us on the osu! Community Server. Should you be interested to help us out with future issues of the Mappers' Report or have anything you would like us to include, join us on the #mappers-report channel!

Hope to see you there soon, thank you for reading and stay safe and healthy!

—Feerum, Teky, Walavouchey & hypercyte