Ascendance's Ultimate osu!catch Mapping Contest IV
January - February 2019
Discord Link: https://discord.gg/hacdQgF
Contest .osz Post: https://osu.ppy.sh/forum/p/6941893
Introduction & Changes
With the resounding success of UCMC III, being the first UCMC to receive a badge for it's winners as well as the first unofficial osu!catch mapping contest to deliver a badge since Transcend back in 2016, I'm bringing it around again! Here are some updates / potential changes for this contest.
- UCMC IV will once again be a single-person contest. There will be no collaboration on entries in any way.
- The song will be anywhere from 2:30 - 4:30 in length.
- The song will likely be drastically different from previous genres we've proposed in previous contests.
- The scoring system will be remaining mostly the same, but any changes made will be noted in the Discord server.
- Winners from UCMC III will both be required to participate in Expert should they decide to participate again.
- The current title holders are
Sinnoh (Expert) and
[_-Kukkai-_] (Novice)
The Schedule
- December 25, 2018: Announcement and judge recruitment / supporter donations
- January 13, 2019: Song selection and rule change cutoff / .osz release
- January 13, 2019 - February 3, 2019: Mapping Phase
- February 3, 2019 - February 17, 2019: Judging Phase (subject to change based on entries)
- February 24, 2019: Winner announced
The Format (Copypasted from previous iterations)
Well Ascendance, what the hell is goin' on around here, I'm not quite sure I follow! How can a new mapper stand up against an experienced mapper in a contest?
Well never fear friends! In this contest, there'll be two "divisions" of judging - new mapper, or the Novice category, and experienced mapper, or the Expert category. These two categories will allow mappers to square up against people of similar abilities to them and test their limits in a way that won't make them discouraged.
For people in the Expert category, you won't need to worry. Novice category mappers will not be able to win the same prizes as the higher echelons of competition, simply because it wouldn't be fair. We aren't undervaluing the newer mappers, but rather promoting mappers to aim for the top in the highest level of mapping.
To qualify as a Novice, you need to fit the following criteria. Breaking any of these criteria will cause you to be moved into the Expert category:
- No Ranked Maps (osu!catch)
- No Ranked Guest Difficulties (osu!catch)
- Under 40 submitted osu!catch mapsets
- Cannot be a Beatmap Nominator (osu!catch)
- Cannot be a Winner of a previous Novice competition
Expert:
1st place: Profile Badge (tentative), BN assistance in the ranking of the map
Novice:
1st place: Profile Badge (tentative), Additional assistance through the ranking process
In addition to the above, the winning mapsets are encouraged, but not obligated, to incorporate other contest entries into their mapset to showcase the best that the contest has to offer!
Judging Criteria (Subject to Change)
- Judges will first be voting individually based on the following criteria:
- Creativity (10 points) - The creative portion of your difficulty. This can come down to simple things such as aesthetics, or something more advanced such as an overall theme or unique patterning.
- Structure (10 points) - Did your map fit together well or did it feel random? Are the ideas you introduce consistent throughout the entirety of the map?
- Expression (10 points) - How accurately does the difficulty of the map represent the song? Points in this category are awarded based on the cohesiveness of the difficulty as a whole, as well as determining if your map fits the song at all stages.
- Hitsounding (3 points) - Does the hitsounding of your map make sense? Does it add or detract from the difficutly and do the various settings make sense (samplesets, volumes, etc)?
- Judge's Opinion (7 points) - This category is based on the judge's personal opinion of your difficulty. There is no innate criteria for it, but the judge may have their own personal criteria to fit the 7 points.
Rules
Registering to participate:
- You must join the Discord using the link at the top of this post! Be sure to ping Ascendance declaring your intent to join!
- Maps will consist of 1 difficulty of ANY level, but be reasonable. Lower difficulties will not score as many points as generous attempts at higher difficulties. (Platter and above is recommended. With the winning mapset, staff members will be willing to fill out the lower difficulties of the set before it is pushed for rank, if the mapper desires). Example set - The top diffs are all other participant's entries, the other diffs are filled by the winner's friends and staff members.
- Submissions must have their difficulty name set to be the intended difficulty of the map. (Cup, Salad, Platter, Rain, Overdose). Anything else won't be looked at.
- Submissions with more than 1 difficulty submitted will have only the highest difficulty judged.
- Maps are allowed only to use default hitsounds. No additional custom sets will be allowed, and the presence of custom sets will detract from score.
- Maps are to be submitted through .osu format only. This means storyboards and custom backgrounds will not be permitted until the contest ends.
- You must map adhere to the ranking criteria. Unrankable maps with the intent of being unrankable (mistakes are fine) will not be scored.
- The map only needs to be submitted once. If you submit multiple entries, only the most recent one will be scored. Example: (UCMC IV SUBMISSION: ASCENDANCE)
- Mapsets cannot be submitted until the winner of the contest is announced. Submitting your mapset or sharing your entry with any other participant is grounds for a disqualification.
- All entries must be sent directly to Ascendance via Forum PM. Submissions by any other means will not be accepted.
- Mapsets submitted past the cutoff date (23:59 UTC+0) will not be accepted whatsoever.
As always, PM Ascendance with any questions you may have <: