Beatmap Spotlights Season 7: Summer 2022 - Reading Hell

Spotlights rivals assemble, for the summer season is finally is here! Experience a new form of hellish challenge with our latest reading-oriented theme and compete for fun and glory!

Those who watched the playlist reveal livestream on Twitch will be no stranger to this season's theme of reading hell, which basically means hard to read maps of any sort. If you're an enthusiast of having an utterly insane number of things on your screen at once, we've got you covered this season!

To keep things competitive, we've also decided to disable the Hard Rock freemod selection from this season's playlists. No cheesing AR7 for you! Time to get good.

If you just can't wait to try out the new playlists, the Beatmap Spotlights lobbies are now open for play on the osu!(lazer) client, so go get involved and start setting scores.

If you're wondering what the heck the Beatmap Spotlights are and how to get involved in them, simply read on below:

How do I participate in the Beatmap Spotlights?

To participate in the Beatmap Spotlights, download the latest version of the lazer client from its GitHub releases page.

Once you're done installing and logging into your account, head on over to the playlists tab in the play section and find the Spotlights lobbies as denoted by a little pink bar. You can also filter the lobbies to show only the Spotlights playlists in the top right corner. Changing gamemodes is as simple as clicking one of the four mode icons at the top middle-left of your screen - it'll be whatever game mode you played last by default.

Beatmap of the Season: Results

With this season launch, we're going back to basics with how we review the Beatmap of The Season competition. This time, both the Spotlights Curators and the Spotlights League players got to vote on their favourite beatmap from the Winter Season 2022 beatmap pool in each game mode.

The creator of each winning entry will be awarded with 3 months of the osu!supporter tag for their hard efforts.

A big thank you to everyone who voted!

osu!

Laur - Nostalgic Blood of the Strife [VINXIS' EXHAUST], mapped by VINXIS
primarily suggested by Nowaie
described by Venix

VINXIS' difficulty of Nostalgic Blood of the Strife heads a challenge of mapping a high (240!) BPM song another-like diff, in which case a heavy undermap is unavoidable.

Fortunately though, it doesn't fail it at any point. There's no surprise in seeing this beatmap win the community voting, it feels buttery smooth to play with its clean but well thought-out slider arrangements and isn't boring at all, especially considering the limitations of mapping such Star Rating on such BPM.

Be sure to give the beatmap a try, good job VINXIS!

osu!taiko

With over 150 votes, the taiko voting ended up with a three-way tie, therefore we've got no other option than just mentioning and rewarding all three mappers of those!

AZKi - Fake.Fake.Fake [Xavy's Light Oni], mapped by X a v y
primarily suggested and described by Hivie

Fake.Fake.Fake, a popular mapset among speed players takes (1/3 of) the spotlight for this season!

The featured difficulty is basically the perfect introduction to high BPM for players who are still on the way of grasping the shenanigans of multi-color 1/4 patterning, it mainly uses simple and intuitive patterns, so players can fully focus on its main challenge: conquering 255BPM

Don't fret over the other difficulties tho, each one provides a unique experience for every kind of difficulty, so whether you're still trying to separate dons from kats, or you've effectively conquered the drums, there's certainly a treat for you here!

THE ORAL CIGARETTES - 5150 [Muzukashii], mapped by KyeX
primarily suggested and described by [Zeth]

A song that most circle clickers may be familiar with but has only recently been ranked in the drum smashing department, KyeX has took the matter to his own hand and ranked THE ORAL CIGARETTES' 5150 in osu!taiko, completed with the background art that most people associate with the artist. (Let's be honest though, all the background arts for this artist's maps look amazing.)

Of course, the map doesn't only have eye-catching background to support the popularity the map has received over the months. All difficulties within the set were tastefully done and mapped cleanly as expected of KyeX, and Muzukashii took the spotlight for being an extremely well-done lower difficulty for the song. While other Muzukashii difficulties often struggle from song representation and improvisation issue due to the limiting nature of lower difficulties, this map managed to strike a delicate balance between using improvised triples to bring a lot of fun to the map, while not being too difficult for the player base the difficulty is targeting towards. And of course the song being an absolute banger just makes it all the better.

UNDEAD CORPORATION - Flowering Night Fever Guitar Inst-hen [Inner Oni], mapped by Greenshell
primarily suggested and described by Axer

osu!taiko is no stranger to UNDEAD CORPORATION, and neither is Greenshell to metal mapping! Arriving at the demand of the player's choice we have his rendition of Flowering Night Fever! Namely, his Inner Oni difficulty.

The difficulty of the map is nothing to joke about mind you! Boasting a staggering 290BPM, stacked to the brim with 1/4 bursts, sprinkling a few 1/3 patterns during the solo, this is simply THE map to practice your speed limit on, or maybe just to tear what's left of your fingers away. One of the rare scenarios where up-and-coming players and well-seasoned players can meet, agreeing that inherently of rank this map is challenging nonetheless.

osu!catch

Camellia - FM Synthesis Experiment [Glitch], mapped by Unlucky_w
primarily suggested by SadEgg
described by wwwww

Unlucky_w left a huge impression to many players when they started pushing their maps for the ranked section. Surprising many as previously he was only known as a top player rather than a mapper. However, through time, dedication, and many SpongeBob map packs. They continued to immensely improve before taking the ranked section by storm.

While this is only his second ranked map, it shows a significant mastery of how to map enjoyable catch mechanics. Showcasing their own variation to dense and technical mapping through unique streams and flow. The map itself having less than 10 fcs shows its uniqueness and desire to stray away from being an easy 6 star map. I could not be happier that this ended up being the winner and I am eager to see what maps Unlucky_w creates in the future.

osu!mania

Kurokotei - Galaxy Collapse [[4K] Cataclysmic Hypernova], mapped by Mat
primarily suggested and described by Crumpey

This is a map that I think secretly we all knew would be the highest voted one, and rightfully so!

Galaxy Collapse came at a time where there weren't many high star rated 4k ranked maps, so it quickly became a baseline for all up and coming players to pass and prove their worth in the mania scene.

Along with being a grueling 6:42 minute long marathon which tests your stamina, the patterns vary from rather simple streams to fast chord-jacks, not to mention the final kiai which changes the bpm to an insane 320 that challenges even those who are skilled enough to be able to play it proficiently.

I personally would like to congratulate Mat for his effort in creating such an iconic map that will be remembered in mania's history and hope to see more history-defining maps from him in the future!

Full Players' Pick voting results

Check out each respective game mode's player voting full results:

• osu!
• osu!taiko
• osu!catch
• osu!mania

Inside the Spotlights Team

This season, we will say farewell to some of our members as well as welcome some fresh blood to the ranks of Spotlights Curators. Thanks for all your hard efforts to deliver the seasonal dose of outstanding beatmap material!

Curator additions:

• osu!catch: WadBot

Curator resignations:

• osu!mania: Aruel, HowToPlayLN

For the full Spotlights Team members list, check out the Beatmap Spotlights wiki article.

Season schedule and leaderboards

The Summer Season 2022 leaderboard will be available over at the Beatmap Spotlights Summer Season 2022 wiki article once the first batch of lobbies conclude in the coming weeks.

Rewards

Badges	Bracket tier	Placement
	Rhythm Incarnate	The best of the best
	Diamond	3%
	Platinum	3% - 10%
	Gold	10% - 25%
	Silver	25% - 50%
	Bronze	50% - 70%
	Copper	70% - 95%
	Iron	95% - 100%

The percentage values may vary a little depending on the game mode and/or participant counts.

The Rhythm Incarnate tier threshold is picked manually based on season's participant count and general size of other tiers, though it is an absolute number that ranges between top 2 and top 50 in most cases.

Winter Season 2022 first playlists

osu! (led by Nowaie)

Playlist A (reading hell)

• King Krule - Dum Surfer (dsco) [Hard], suggested by Lefafel
• Kanaria - EYE (Alvearia) [Alvearia's Insane], suggested by Zelq
• Absofacto - Dissolve (Mosebye) [Dissolve], suggested by Nowaie
• Plutian - Until the Blue Moon Rises (ktgster) [Special], suggested by Lefafel
• Maison book girl - snow irony_ (Deppyforce) [deppy's insane_], suggested by Riot
• Seeed - Ding (Deramok) [Deramok's Hidden Extra], suggested by DeviousPanda
• Kenshi Yonezu - MAD HEAD LOVE (iljaaz) [CRAZY], suggested by Omgforz
• FUJIN CLUB - Tabi to Ferry (dsco) [Seaside], suggested by Omgforz
• a_hisa - Pudding Funfair (Pennek) [MERRY-GO-ROUND], suggested by DeviousPanda

osu!taiko (led by Hivie)

Playlist A (reading hell)

• U.T.D. & Friends - Lesson by DJ (tatatat) [CHALLENGE], suggested by uone
• Finana Ryugu - TSUNAMI ([Zeth]) [MUZUKASHII], suggested by uone
• Kikuo - Yesterday, Everything Returns (Alchyr) [: :], suggested by Axer
• Lil Nas X - MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) (Skull Kid) [Gay Oni], suggested by Hivie
• m-flo loves CHEMISTRY - Astrosexy (Axer) [m-flo loves SVs], suggested by Hivie
• MUZZ - Nemesis (clockbite) [clockbite & Tachi's Sanctuary], suggested by [Zeth]
• II-L - VANGUARD-1 (Axer) [Inner Oni], suggested by Hivie
• Zekk - Foresight (woosungko) [Prescience], suggested by Hivie
• Culprate & Au5 - Impulse (Megafan) [Creativity], suggested by [Zeth]

osu!catch (led by SadEgg)

Playlist A (reading hell)

• kors k feat. Starbitz - Butterfly (CLSW) [Platter], suggested by wonjae
• fripSide - snow blind -after- (autofanboy) [permafrost], suggested by wonjae
• TSUNKU - Batting Show Perfect Version (Sinnoh) [Overdose], suggested by wonjae
• seleP - ReLief (Secre) [Tormented Reality], suggested by Nelly
• yanaginagi - Shirushibi (-Luminate) [Lumi's Rain], suggested by WadBot
• glass beach - bedroom community (GIGACHAD) [hopes of a suburban girl], suggested by Nelly
• Mili - world.execute(me); (JierYagtama) [mapset.add("world execution");], suggested by Nelly
• in love with a ghost - trans rights (JBHyperion) [overdose], suggested by SadEgg
• S-C-U - NANAHOSHI (ZiRoX) [Ladybug], suggested by SadEgg

osu!mania (led by Crumpey)

Playlist A (reading hell)

• NAGI - inside (ArcherLove) [[7K] HD], suggested by lenpai
• Chroma - [@__@] (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH) [[4K] Hard], suggested by Crumpey
• inabakumori - Rainy Boots (Ballistic) [[4K] Motionless], suggested by Protastic101
• Marcioz - My First Time Dying ($hristal, $hristal Eye) (Parachor) [[4K] Rebirth], suggested by Hydria
• Camellia - Tojita Sekai ([Crz]Alleyne) [[4K] The fake sky covers a closed world...], suggested by Protastic101
• Camellia - Fly Wit Me (Leniane) [[4K] Ascension], suggested by Hydria
• T-SQUARE SUPER BAND SPECIAL - JAPANESE SOUL BROTHERS (Cut & Live Ver.) (Ska) [[4K] 35th Anniversary | Part 2], suggested by Hydria
• Mastermind(xi+nora2r) - Dreadnought (PyaKura) [[7K] Hyperspace], picked as a result of popular vote amongst Curators
• Camellia - OOPARTS (AWMRone) [[6K] OOccultism], suggested by Antalf

Playlist B and C will be available on the Beatmap Spotlights article as we open the playlist lobbies, so stay tuned!

The Future

The new Beatmap Spotlights is still a project in its early development stage and depends a lot on community feedback and engagement to improve. Many things can (and will) change for future seasons, and it all depends on your feedback!

What do you want for the next season? What needs to be fixed? What are your opinions on the current system? You can voice out all your opinions in the osu! community Discord (#beatmap-spotlights) and we will keep note of every suggestion, so please let us know how you feel about things.

We do hope you enjoyed the Spring Season 2022 Spotlights, and, of course, we do hope that you'll enjoy the Summer Season even more!

See you in the upcoming lobbies!

Join us over at the osu! community Discord server and assign yourself a role to keep up with Spotlights changes and announcements, or visit the osu!dev Discord server to help us push this project even further!

You can find out more about the Beatmap Spotlights on the osu! wiki.

—Venix