osu!weekly #65

The osu!weekly has found a new home in the public discord! With this move, it is now easier than ever to give your feedback to our publication. Read on for the latest information going around the community!

It seems that we really can't underestimate how much work goes into these top player videos! Despite being well into mid-june, the Polish community has come out with their own top players of 2015 video. It looks like Fartownik REALLY put in work to get this video translated, so check it out if you're interested!

The osu! weekly has a new home in the osu! development discord! If you have information on what's been happening around the community, want to ask me a question about helping out with the publication, or just simply want to drop by and say hello, check out peppy's tweet about it here.

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OCWT 8th Sees Grand Finals Weekend

By Evrien

Probably one of the longest-running tournament series in osu!, the OCWT (osu! China Winter Tournament) is at its 8th installment, and will now arrive at its Grand Finals weekend with 2 more matches remaining. A month ago we started with 32 unique teams, and amongst them ascended 3 who will compete to take home the title of OCWT 8th Champion. Surely enough, each and every one of these 24 participants is a beast of a player, and showing their tenacity in a tournament with an uncanny ruleset and quirky map pool style is no easy cakewalk. However, equally assured is that they will not back down from hardships. Be it the defending champion Team #Arsecrackers, the Korean battle-bus Team Burstlimit, or the Asian all-star Team SPD, everyone has their eyes on the prize, and is eager to show the world that they are the best team.

This past weekend, Team SPD (led by Rucker) sent Team Burstlimit (led by Neta) down to the losers bracket with a 6-1 set, finally losing their first point in this tournament but still maintaining that winning streak. Team Tablet is for Losers (led by W3SON) fought hard and eliminated Team SPD2 Taose Nai Yo (led by SpringLane) 6-5, but came up short when confronted by Team #Arsecrackers (led by Jesse1412), losing on the same Tiebreaker map 5-6.

While it is uncertain who will take home this year's OCWT Winning Team title (and profile badge), popular voice shows strong favor for Team SPD. An unofficial poll conducted on Twitter reports that of 198 votes 61% believe Team SPD will win. This comes as less than surprising considering the amount of hype generated when it was announced that for the first time three 1-digit rank players - Cookiezi, hvick225, and Axarious – will be fighting side-by-side on this team. Team #Arsecrackers comes in second with 25% of votes. Despite having lost to Team SPD earlier in the tournament, this defending champion team is now picking up momentum, and Rafis' carrying performance on the Tiebreaker against Team Tablet is for Losers brought renewed faith back to their fans. Last but most certainly not the least, Team Burstlimit has shown great improvement since last year in OCWT 7th where their journey was evidently more bumpy. Players like Cinia Pacifica, Neta, and My Aim Sucks are not strangers to the OCWT series, and each and every one of these "busdrivers" is an army on his own. Now, which team do you support?

skip to 24min40sec

Saturday 25th – \Arsecrackers vs Burstlimit at UTC 1200

Sunday 26th – SPD vs #Arsecrackers at UTC1200

Or – SPD vs Burstlimit at UTC1000

Stream at: Twitch

By -KousakaHonoka-

The first week of finals concluded last weekend with two high seeds, Germany and Indonesia, facing off in the winner's bracket. An impressive play from NoteKuroi and - Flutter - opened the path for Germany by taking the first point, but Indonesia equalized it in the next song.

The intensity of the match could be felt very clearly as both of teams performed consistently. The score differences of each song were very marginal, and they ended up trading wins until the score evened out to 3 - 3. Even though Germany performed very well, it was Indonesia who advanced to Grand Finals as they won the match with a final score of 6 - 3.

In Lower Bracket, the finals of the osu!catch World Cup 2015 was played out again after South Korea defeated the United States 6 - 1 and China defeated Argentina with same score. Those who had hoped for an intense match were quickly disappointed as South Korea got into a lot of trouble very quickly. China won that match with a score of 6 - 2, avenging their previous defeat at osu!catch 2015 Grand Finals and made their head-to-head record to tie 1 - 1.

Another rematch of last year's event occured when China faced Germany for 3rd place as both also met each other for 3rd place in osu!catch 2015. China got the first point after Germany couldn't keep up in Cherry Blossom's Morimori Atsushi - PUPA. Germany equalized it later then they traded wins until reaching a score of 3 - 3. Despite high tensions, China showed they could handle the pressure as they confidently pushed the score 5 - 3. As Germany's came close to drawing their last breath, it was NoteKuroi made an impressive play and lowered the deficit by making it 5 - 4. Germany tried to force Tiebreaker on their last pick, but it didn't work as China ended the match and advanced to Grand Final. It seems that Germany will have to wait until next year to get revenge for last year's loser's finals. Congratulations Germany for a solid 3rd place finish, you have done your best!

Once again China will face Indonesia in the Finals. Will China avenge their earlier defeat in the Round of 16? Or will Indonesia overpower China once more, become osu!catch World Champion for the first time, and make a new history as the first High Seed team win a World Cup? Anything can happen this Sunday!

Even though we have a new (and better way) for you guys to get in touch with me, I'm still monitoring our inbox for your submissions! If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see in the next osu!weekly, please send us an e-mail at news@ppy.sh. Next week is poll results week, so be sure to check in before the end of June!

—Nyquill