Hi, I'm -[ Dumpling ]- (previously known as "mrdumpling64"). I was invited to participate as a beatmap selector for the ausu!Taiko Tournament.

Overall, I'm pleased with the beatmaps that dajayeway, Pew and myself selected for the first stage (Group Stage) as they cater nicely to the varying skill levels of the contestants. Of course, there were constraints as the overall skill of taiko players is not that high, so the first few stages of the tournament must be easier.

As a beatmap selector, I focused more on introducing less well known but nevertheless well-mapped beatmaps into the mappool. Specifically, my picks were XROSS INFECTION, Omokage Warp, Storm World and Magnolia.

I found it appropriate to choose XROSS as a no-mod pick as it is a challenge, and in a sense distinguishes players who can advance through the tournament to those that will most likely struggle to play beyond a basic stage. Though it is a Muzu, the fast-paced nature of the song can make it easy for players to lose accuracy here and there, and that can really make a difference between winning and losing a stage. Senritsu mapped this difficulty really nicely for such a fast-paced song, and I had no problem suggesting this beatmap to the team.

Omokage Warp is one of my favourites from Ishida, and I chose it as a HR pick. Though it is Futsuu, the >200bpm nature of the song can be challenging to players who struggle to grasp the basics of HR. In my opinion HardRock is a mix between reaction (due to the increased scroll speed), accuracy (due to increased OD) and memorisation (maybe not so much, but it can help as players can prepare to hit certain notes at certain times, thus increasing accuracy and more or less eliminating the reaction part).

Storm World is a great map from Firce. Again I chose it as a HR pick, but due to the reduced bpm of 175 it is more to help a losing player catch up Still, Firce maps Storm World really well, the choice of note positioning and colour really matches the background music and players shouldn't have any problem getting maximum accuracy despite the use of HR.

Finally, Magnolia was the DT suggestion I contributed to the mappool. DoubleTime is risky considering the skill level of most players in Group Stage (ie: no stamina monocolour streams or maps which pretty much require full alternating, since DT can really raise the skill and speed required to play a map. Example: 160bpm with DT is already 240). Regardless, JUDY maps the beats in Magnolia really well, and I had no problem with introducing Futsuu as a suggestion to the other beatmap selectors, since the mapper covers the basic beats really well without overmap, which can cause a problem as a DT pick.

Watching a few of the streams, I can tell that we as beatmap selectors have made a good choice with the mappool, as for the most part the contestants were able to pass/FC the maps easily. I'm excited to see what the harder stages will bring.