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6 Dec 2022
Beatmap Spotlights Season 8: Winter 2023 - Precision
Beatmap Spotlights Season 8: Winter 2023 - Precision
Spotlights rivals arise, winter is knocking the door! Prepare your fingers and eyes for a precision challenge and compete for fun and glory!
Even though winter is technically not here just yet — it's getting pretty cold outside and snow is not a very rare view these days — we are already inviting you all to complete under the Winter Season 2022 umbrella.
Feeling cold in your fingers? We've got no good news for you right there, because this season will be themed with precision-oriented beatmaps, so you may need to warm up a little before enjoying the playlists to their fullest!
We will be also enabling more mods starting this season. Excited? Read the details below!
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 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 game modes is as simple as clicking one of the four mode icons at the top left of your screen — it'll be whatever game mode you played last by default.
Updates
New mods
The mod pool of Beatmap Spotlights has been restricted to a handful of mods since free mods have been applied. Thanks to recent osu!(lazer) updates, we are now able to enable more gameplay modifiers on playlists without worrying about potential damage.
The new mod additions go as below:
| Game mode | Mods |
|---|---|
| osu! | Easy, Half Time, Daycore, Sudden Death, Perfect, Double Time, Nightcore, Flashlight, Blinds, Strict Tracking |
| osu!taiko | Easy, Half Time, Daycore, Sudden Death, Perfect, Double Time, Nightcore, Flashlight |
| osu!catch | Easy, Half Time, Daycore, Sudden Death, Perfect, Double Time, Nightcore |
| osu!mania | Easy, Half Time, Daycore, Sudden Death, Perfect, Double Time, Nightcore |
Beatmap Spotlight Curators user group
As you might've noticed, the Beatmap Spotlight Curators can now be recognised by a blue/green-ish BSC user group badge on their profile. The members of the user group are the core of Beatmap Spotlights, and the project wouldn't be the same without them!
This is a big step forward for the project and its transparency. You can check out who's involved with Beatmap Spotlights at the BSC group listing page.
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 Summer Season 2022 beatmap pool in each game mode.
The creator of each winning entry will be awarded with 3 months of osu!supporter for their hard efforts.
A big thank you to everyone who voted!
osu!
Players' Pick
SOPHIE - NOTHING MORE TO SAY (DUB) [NOTHING ELSE TO SLAY (DAB) ft. tatemae & emilia], mapped by schoolboy, tatemae, and emilia
primarily suggested and described by Nowaie
In a time where a lot of mappers who decide to make monuments from complex songs, our collaborators in question here show the potential of each rhythm in a song. Let yourself fall in love with the ethereal trance-like NOTHING MORE TO SAY (DUB) along with the map accompanying it made by schoolboy, tatemae and emilia.
It must be said that this map is anything but a walk in a park. Any challenger will quickly realise that, regardless of the relatively low star rating and BPM, attempting to conquer the map requires one to stay on their toes for the whole duration. The rhythm is explored with dozens of unique and certainly difficult patterns even for the most experienced circle destroyers, leading to an experience rather rarely seen in osu!.
Are you up for the challenge? Give this SOPHIE banger a shot.
Curators' Pick
KUMOKIRI - Shippuujinrai [Expert], mapped by Kloyd
primarily suggested and described by DeviousPanda
Kloyd's map of Shippuujinrai is a masterclass in unconventional flow aim mapping, and as it was initially created as a Hard Rock custom map for the hardest stage of the osu! World Cup 2021, it does not disappoint at testing many players' limits.
Kloyd does an amazing job of capturing such an intense track perfectly with many changing angles and spacing conventions to support even the slightest of changes in intensity from pattern to pattern. It is definitely a highlight across all maps ranked recently, making it absolutely deserving of winning the curators' pick.
osu!taiko
Players' Pick
MUZZ - Nemesis [clockbite & Tachi's Sanctuary], mapped by clockbite and Tachibana_
primarily suggested and described by [Zeth]
For the players' pick, clockbite and Tachibana_'s rendition of Nemesis by MUZZ takes the crown and it's not hard to see why.
Built around a song with fairly repetitive rhythm and melody, both mappers have managed to synergise their style together perfectly and crafted a map that has variations upon variations interpreting similar parts of the song, which helps keeping the map engaging to play throughout its 4 minutes of runtime. Pair that with clean SV throughout and some tasteful execution of detached bar lines and they are setting up to take the player base by storm.
Curators' Pick
Culprate & Au5 - Impulse [Creativity], mapped by Megafan
primarily suggested and described by [Zeth]
Coming hot out of the osu!taiko Featured Artist Cup, Megafan's rendition of Impulse by Culprate & Au5 is certainly an interesting entry to the contest. While the contest itself prioritises making an interesting map while obeying the ranking criteria, Megafan decides to push the boundary of rankability to the extreme, and what's born from this experimentation is a map that embodies the difficulty name itself.
Ninja notes? Check. Extremely slow SV? Check. Detached bar lines? Check. "Wub" SV? Check. Accelerating stream that is literally unreadable but also entirely reasonable to play? Also check. The map packs so many ideas into a 5-minute song, complete with challenging technical streams, and bursts to provide a full experience that even the best players would struggle to get an FC on. It may not be the winning entry to a contest, but it truly deserves a spotlight in the Ranked section, as a testament to how far the ranking criteria and mapping creativity could be pushed to their extreme.
osu!catch
Players' Pick
Ata - Euphoria [Hi-Speed Fruit Super-Highway], mapped by Kyptoric
primarily suggested and described by WadBot
With Euphoria, Kyptoric, a veteran osu!catch player, and creator of some of the game mode's most iconic Loved maps (such as Soulless 4, and Speed of Link, just to name a few) enters the Ranked section for the first time, with an unconventional style of mapping that is sure to have your heart racing for this map's entire duration.
In this five and a half–minute psytrance fruit-catching experience, you will come across a little bit of everything, from streams, to jumps, to wiggles, and even 1/8 direction-change hyperchains, all at 190 BPM. The whole map is also constructed in a way that Kyptoric himself describes as a "partly anti-symmetrical/freeform style with convert-inspired patterns". This is definitely shown to be true, through the sheer variety of patterns that Kyptoric has produced in which you can catch fruit. To date, this map only has one FC, so why not give it a go to see if you too can FC in exchange for some sweet Euphoria?
Curators' Pick
LeaF - Calamity Fortune [Crystal's Overdose], mapped by CLSW
primarily suggested by wonjae
described by SadEgg
This spectacle of a map has been around the osu!catch community for nearly a decade now and it does not disappoint. CLSW took a beautiful instrumental masterpiece — and as the mapping paragon they are — built one themselves.
This 2013 200 BPM showstopper challenges your mastery of the platter in many different aspects including tap dashes, anti-flow streams, and of course some of those signature wiggles that even test top players' finger control. All of those patterns are cherry-picked and slotted in such a way that showcases their variation of dense and technical mapping through unique streams and flow. Synergy with each emphasis, this map fits the song perfectly, making for a display and an exceedingly polished map.
osu!mania
Players' Pick
laura les - Haunted (dive to the heart remix) [[4K] Another], mapped by Monheim
primarily suggested and described by Kibitz
The Chord Jack Ranked Maps Era is here! Monheim absolutely blasts the gates open with their FULL rice-based mapset. Yes. You heard me right. Zero long notes. RICE PLAYERS REJOICE as this 154 BPM dense chord jack mapset challenges your stamina, consistency and raw reading skill.
The Another difficulty in particular features a massive step up from the lower difficulties but is still manageable for intermediate players looking for a tough challenge! Monheim executes this difficulty swimmingly with an abundance of quads matching the everlasting bass coupled with stacked notes and minijacks and a bunch of 1/4 quadstreams to give this map that extra kick. This map has a very unique concept which is rare to see be done well, as the balance between both the chord jacks and vocal dump feels really well polished. This is definitely a leading factor in a potential shift we may see in the future of osu!mania's Ranked section.
Curators' Pick
Camellia - Newspapers for Magicians [Extra], mapped by Blocko
primarily suggested and described by Antalf
A timeless artist for rhythm games, Camellia delivers another banger song with an amazing mapset by one of our veteran community members, Blocko! This map includes an amazing spread that caters to every player no matter the skill level and will guarantee a memorable experience regardless.
You will find yourself enveloped from easy-to-follow rhythms up to insane and complex long notes while playing this map. They both intertwine in harmony to create the amazing last difficulty, Magic, but don't sleep on the lower ones! They are as great as it gets with subtle long note patterns and a variety of other ones that'll make you want not just to keep playing but vibe along with the music.
Blocko, even after years of mapping and contribution, is still consistently delivering amazing charts and sets as a whole, making unique maps along with an experience that is due to last.
Full Players' Pick voting results
Check out each respective game mode's player voting results:
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!taiko: Horiiizon
- osu!mania: MadBricktree, Maxus
Nowaie will also be stepping down from leading the osu! Curators team, while ChillierPear will handle his tasks from now on.
For the full Spotlights Team members list, check out the Beatmap Spotlight Curators wiki article.
Season schedule and leaderboards
| Event | Time |
|---|---|
| Season start | Dec 6, 2022 |
| Playlist lobby: Playlist A | Dec 6 - Dec 20, 2022 |
| Playlist lobby: Playlist B | Dec 20, 2022 - Jan 3, 2023 |
| Playlist lobby: Playlist C | Jan 3 - Jan 17, 2023 |
| Playlist lobby: Playlist A | Jan 17 - Jan 24, 2023 |
| Playlist lobby: Playlist B | Jan 24 - Jan 31, 2023 |
| Playlist lobby: Playlist C | Jan 31 - Feb 7, 2023 |
| Season conclusion | Feb 7, 2023 |
The Winter Season 2023 leaderboard will be available over at the Beatmap Spotlights Winter 2023 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 the 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 2023 first playlists
osu! (led by Nowaie)
Playlist A (precision)
- Annabel - Palermo (Lince Cosmico) [Collab Hard], suggested by Lefafel
- KOTOKO - agony (fluxies) [Fluxie's Insane], suggested by DigitalHypno
- Kamisama Club - No. 5 (dsco) [Capital], suggested by Riot
- Foxblood - Bittersweet (Osatia) [Insaner], suggested by Lefafel
osu!taiko (led by Hivie)
Playlist A (precision)
- Raimukun - Cthulhu (KyeX) [Muzukashii], suggested by uone
- Yamajet - Jump to the future (tasuke912) [tasuke's Oni], suggested by uone
- The Flashbulb - Time Ache Finale (coed) [Oni], suggested by [Zeth]
- Mitsukiyo - Dream Leaf (Hivie) [Inner Oni], suggested by uone
osu!catch (led by SadEgg)
Playlist A (precision)
- Lovejoy - The Fall (Crowley) [PLATTER], suggested by SadEgg
- Eldzhey - Suzuki (M0RU) [Hype], suggested by Kimitakari
- YOASOBI - Encore (Crowley) [End of the World], suggested by SadEgg
- S-C-U - heron (ZiRoX) [Overdose], suggested by SadEgg
- xi - Parousia (Deif) [Lost Judgement], suggested by WadBot
osu!mania (led by Crumpey)
Playlist A (precision)
- Otokaze - amamichi (richardfeder) [PC's 7K Another], suggested by lenpai
- Camellia - Fastest Crash (_Hikari) [[4K] Hard], suggested by Crumpey
- Dictate - Empire (arccat) [[4K] Civilization], suggested by Protastic101
- paraoka - L9 (Jesuren) [4K Daydream], suggested by Hydria
osu!mania playlists will include 7 beatmaps instead of 9 this season.
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 server (#beatmap-spotlights channel) and we will keep note of every suggestion, so please let us know how you feel about things.
We do hope you enjoyed the Summer Season 2022 Spotlights, and, of course, we do hope that you'll enjoy the Winter 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
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