Preface
I would like to address the lack of high star ranked maps and the implications it has on the ranking of ctb. Including my own suggestion.
As a disclaimer I would like to clarify that I'm not a mapper and that these are mostly my own opinion and could be skewed by my own self-bias so I look forward to corrections in my assumptions.

The problem
The ranking process is a great way to highlight quality maps (although many hipsters would disagree, go submit suggestions to the ranking criteria not constantly complain about mappers). However ctb has a small amount of maps ranked that are over 6 stars. For higher ranked players there is a strong tendency or inclination to either play converts or to play unranked specifics because you can essentially play most high star ctb maps in a single sitting.

This also affects ranking. It is very difficult to be unique or diverse in your top ranks. An infamous example would be image material, if someone could FC image material but didn't want to for personal reasons it would be more difficult to reach for instance top 100 than it would be if he played it against his will.

I also feel that because you can run out of unplayed high star maps quickly it is kind of expected to play the same maps over and over in order to climb ranking.

My ridiculous suggestion
I expect a lot of controversy with my suggestion but would still like to genuinely discuss its prospects and hope to receive constructive criticism on it.

I suggest for beatmap nominators to have the ability to skip modding and be able to immediately submit a mapset to qualified.

Before you burn me on the stake for heresy let me explain myself.

I recognize that modding is required for the feedback loop that aids to getting a map ranked. I recognize that the hype system exists in order to allow for players to show interest/priority in pending maps. And I recognize that this would make it more likely for "problems" to pass through the system and rank a map that "should've" been changed.
I also realize that this doesn't specifically target high star maps and there is no guarantee that it'll solve this variety problem. There are probably better alternatives that would address this problem better but I believe this suggestion to still be relevant in ctb ranking process and a step forward.

I believe that experienced mappers that understand the ranking criteria should have the ability to qualify maps at their discretion. I would expect this to increase the speed at which maps get ranked but also exacerbate the "monopoly" certain mappers have in the ability to rank maps.

By making this a perk for BNs I belief this could motivate more people to apply for a BN position. Which would benefit CTB mapping community in general.

Conclusion
Based on my own observation the current ranking system seems to work great for standard. Due to standard's large population it has more leeway to be thorough and can afford more processes without suffering the same lack of variety of high star maps that ctb suffers under.

Besides the question of whether the suggestion is a step forwards or backwards it is unlikely for ctb to receive unique treatment in the ranking process.

I would also like to encourage people to come with suggestions to improve this.

obligatory not a ctb player. how would this help higher sr maps get ranked?

As a ctb player






WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING

Uniform wrote:

obligatory not a ctb player. how would this help higher sr maps get ranked?

To answer that question I'll quote a part of my proposal:

Tris wrote:

I also realize that this doesn't specifically target high star maps and there is no guarantee that it'll solve this variety problem. There are probably better alternatives that would address this problem better but I believe this suggestion to still be relevant in ctb ranking process and a step forward.

to answer the title "Addressing CTB's lack of quantity in ranked high star maps", the reason why there aren't many maps over 6 stars is because there aren't many people mapping CTB actively. mapping !catch is hard and generally speaking, the higher the sr the harder it is to get the map ranked (there may be exceptions).

tl;dr people don't want to rank a 7* map every week or so

It's not only quanity but quality.
There are tons of maps getting ranked despite not following the rules or being impossible.
But because a handful of obvious cheaters clear it, it gets pushed through.

This is just one of many problems with CTB and the developers not actually caring about us CTB players.

YourSuicidalGf wrote:

It's not only quanity but quality.
There are tons of maps getting ranked despite not following the rules or being impossible.
But because a handful of obvious cheaters clear it, it gets pushed through.

This is just one of many problems with CTB and the developers not actually caring about us CTB players.

October 2020 player response

Tris wrote:

I suggest for beatmap nominators to have the ability to skip modding and be able to immediately submit a mapset to qualified

[...]

I recognize that modding is required for the feedback loop that aids to getting a map ranked. I recognize that the hype system exists in order to allow for players to show interest/priority in pending maps. And I recognize that this would make it more likely for "problems" to pass through the system and rank a map that "should've" been changed.
I also realize that this doesn't specifically target high star maps and there is no guarantee that it'll solve this variety problem. There are probably better alternatives that would address this problem better but I believe this suggestion to still be relevant in ctb ranking process and a step forward.

I believe that experienced mappers that understand the ranking criteria should have the ability to qualify maps at their discretion. I would expect this to increase the speed at which maps get ranked but also exacerbate the "monopoly" certain mappers have in the ability to rank maps.

This will not help, but instead make things worse because it creates a more volatile situation.

While it's true that we can forgo all rules and guidelines and leave it up to BN to judge whether a map is good for ranked or not, this creates a more subjective situation that BN might want to avoid altogether. Modding ensures the map follows ranking criteria and has some assured quality. Without that, it's more work for the BN to check over the map and more pressure to decide whether the map is suitable for rank. Do you think a BN will want to touch a 10 star map not knowing whether it will be dq'd or not? Keep in mind that dq may mean probation for the BN that nominates that map, or worse, booted off from bn team.

abraker wrote:

Tris wrote:

I suggest for beatmap nominators to have the ability to skip modding and be able to immediately submit a mapset to qualified

[...]

I recognize that modding is required for the feedback loop that aids to getting a map ranked. I recognize that the hype system exists in order to allow for players to show interest/priority in pending maps. And I recognize that this would make it more likely for "problems" to pass through the system and rank a map that "should've" been changed.
I also realize that this doesn't specifically target high star maps and there is no guarantee that it'll solve this variety problem. There are probably better alternatives that would address this problem better but I believe this suggestion to still be relevant in ctb ranking process and a step forward.

I believe that experienced mappers that understand the ranking criteria should have the ability to qualify maps at their discretion. I would expect this to increase the speed at which maps get ranked but also exacerbate the "monopoly" certain mappers have in the ability to rank maps.

This will not help, but instead make things worse because it creates a more volatile situation.

While it's true that we can forgo all rules and guidelines and leave it up to BN to judge whether a map is good for ranked or not, this creates a more subjective situation that BN might want to avoid altogether. Modding ensures the map follows ranking criteria and has some assured quality. Without that, it's more work for the BN to check over the map and more pressure to decide whether the map is suitable for rank. Do you think a BN will want to touch a 10 star map not knowing whether it will be dq'd or not? Keep in mind that dq may mean probation for the BN that nominates that map, or worse, booted off from bn team.

Good point. That is not something I thought about. I myself am a game dev so I tend to think through that lens. For me it's normal for who has been assigned the role of "level designer" to also have the ability to discriminate quality by themselves even if that can be inconsistent with other level designers or players. But because there is no "hired team" getting paid and a more blurry line between user/"dev", the idea that I proposed could incentivize BNers to avoid higher starred maps, as you mentioned, due to fear of probation.

Unfortunately I lack the competence to pitch my own opinion in regards to ranking criteria. I am not a mapper myself. But I can't help but question whether a mapper having to fear for probation for ranking higher starred maps means that the system is working accordingly.

I'm not necessarily concernced with what the solution should be, rather I'm concerned with how we could best solve this problem, so I would love to hear possible alternatives from someone more informed than I am.