Beatmap Nominator Tiers

Beatmap Nominator Tiers were a way of separating Beatmap Nominators (BN) into upper and lower tiers, mimicking the Mapping Assistance Team and the Beatmap Appreciation Team. The system was used between April 2017 and September 2017.

This system was implemented in response to the Quality Assurance Team (QAT)'s change in function from assuring qualified beatmap quality to general BN management. By giving qualification permissions to only the "most capable" members of the BN, the QAT hoped that ranked beatmap quality would improve.

Permissions

• Tier 1 BN could place a map's first nomination (or second nomination for Approved beatmaps).
• Tier 2 BN could place a map's first, second, or third nomination.

Beatmap Nominator Tier Test

To decide which Beatmap Nominators would belong to each tier, all members of the BN were given a BN test. Unlike prior BN tests, this one was designed around identifying general issues within a mapset.

Scores of the test were overall unreliable because most users had extremely low scores. The initial plan was to split users into tiers equally based on test scores, but test scores in the upper half were too low for that to be a viable option. Instead, only the top 13 users with >50% scores were admitted into the second tier. The highest score was earned by Yuii- at 76%.

While it was planned to create multiple tests to distinguish tiers, only one was used throughout the system's 5 month lifespan.

Impact

While it was shortlived, the effects of this test had notable impact on the mapping scene.

By reducing tier 1 nominators' permissions, many nominators lost motivation to contribute to the game. The limited amount of tier 2 nominators led to fewer maps being qualified, and most of the qualified maps at any given time were promoted by the most active users.

The mapping community viewed this change as unproductive and unnecessary, with most complaints noting the low frequency of ranked maps relative to before tiers were established.

Example of community commentary on BN tiers

Beatmap Nominator tiers were the predecessor for distinction the Full Beatmap Nominators and Probationary Beatmap Nominators implemented in September 2017. Their permissions were nearly the same, however a user could not remain in the lower tier (probation) for more than 2 months. If a user wasn't ready for the Full BN after 2 months, they would be removed from the BN entirely.