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Overall I think this mappool is good because it properly fills many niches, as it should. However, they may not be filled for the reasons one may think, e.g. a speed and sv pick being better ratio picks than the acc picks, an acc pick being more of a hybrid... It can push players' strategies beyond the sv/ln/acc/speed/tech/hybrid mold and meta and can make some matches genuinely interesting, even if they may not be representative of players' proficiencies in respective categories.
I've noticed the balance between harder and easier picks, which I think gives a proper chance to the lower seeds of groups while still providing higher seeds something to chew on, but the fact that categories can cross between each other kinda disturbs that meta.
I think it made for some really interesting upsets and matches, and I really had fun picking and counterpicking in my matches. It's undeniably a good pool.
[sv1] Rise: The Memo pick, or rather, the Meme pick
As a memo, it isn't particularly surprising that this ends up being the most banned; and if it's not banned, a almost certain pick. Although the picks might be meme picks.
It's rather intuitive to learn, there are only a couple of sv transitions you really have to memorize (mainly the 1/3 snappy ones + end of chorus) and with the prevalence of slowjam, increasing the scroll speed is an option. The LN slowjam bridge is however annoying if you're not confident on your LNs.
Definitely harder to grasp than qualifiers SV to me, but it might be barely proper for groups.
[sv2] Acorn: The SV/acc pick, or "acc 4"
As an SV pick, the SVs aren't particularly remarkable, but they seem to be enough to mess up a fair amount of players' ratios.
It is really a ratio pick, with only the wild element of small-scale reaction SV making it different. It favors players who go by audio and musical rhythm rather than players who tend to react to the notes to acc/ratio.
Definitely much easier to grasp than qualifiers SV, dunno if it's easy because it's too easy for groups or if it's adequate for groups.
[ln1] Uncontrollable: The polyrhythm LN consistency pick
I think this is quite chokeable due to a combination of LNs and offbeat notes: the LNs basically follow the vocals and the rice emphasizes the rhythm, which creates a kinda techy, small polyrhythmic map that's not trivial, especially due to its length.
I can't compare it to Masquerade because it's not the same kind of difficulty, certainly less trouble note-wise, but more chokeable. I think it's adequate for groups.
[ln2] Crush on You: The undeniably LN pick
It's what most would expect from a LN pick, undeniably favors people who have practiced LN releases and finger control. It's a rather "pure" LN pick that's a bit easier than Masquerade. It could range from adequate to slightly too hard for groups to me.
[acc1] Alone Intelligence: "hybrid 2"
I think this has enough LN play to label it as "hybrid", although it's slow enough to still call it "acc". I actually think this pick favors lower skilled players who have an edge on LNs over their opponent, given that they know how to acc/ratio them.
I think it's strictly harder to ratio than qualifiers acc, but is easier in difficulty and less chokeable. For groups, I'd have expected a less hybridey acc map.
[acc2] Sweet Witch Girl: The slow jumpstream pick
This is pretty much a "speed" pick that's slow enough to label as "acc". I think it favors rice players who are proficient in jumpstream and know how to acc/ratio a little bit.
Easier to ratio than qualifiers acc, slightly harder difficulty than qualifiers acc. Adequate to slightly too hard for groups imo.
[speed1] The Big Black: The stream pick
Stream endurance and consistency is why you'd want to pick this. Also some small tech in the "fucky" middle section.
Way easier than qualifiers speed, but of adequate difficulty for group stage.
[speed2] Kitsune no Yomeiri: The acc ratio pick, or "acc 3"
I don't even think this is fast enough to qualify as speed, even given the minijacks. From the matches that I've seen, this has pretty much acted as a pure acc and ratio pick.
Way easier than qualifiers speed, dare I say easier to acc than even the other group acc picks.
[tech1] Dopamine: The hard, fast and risky pick
This is fast. The ending is a bitch. Overall really hard to acc/ratio, or even FC. The patterns justify the tech category, but I think it might favor players who are more proficient on speed and/or perhaps reading dense sections.
The tech I think is easier than qualifiers tech, but it's definitely more of a speedy tech kind of pick. Too hard for groups, but it's okay to have if the goal was to put something for speedier players.
[tech2] Ririkuro: The choke pick
It's simple, but it's swing and has some anchory patterns here and there, which makes it a prime song to choke on. I think it fits the easier, group stage tech niche well.
[hybrid] Update: The short LN acc pick
I don't even think there's much "pure" LN knowledge strictly required to perform well on this map, but if you know how to acc short LNs in particular, you may have an edge on this map in particular.
This therefore acts as a hybrid of sorts, but more as a "hybrid acc" kind of map. It is however still harder than Alone Intelligence. Adequate difficulty for group stage.
[tb] flower of wilderness: streams, ln acc and reaction svs
The rice difficulty is exclusively stream-centered, with mostly rolls and one tricky 2-hand trill. The LN difficulty mostly lies in keeping accuracy and not choking. I think this TB might favor speed/tech players more than they'd benefit players who are better rounded.
It might have looked just fine on stream, but upon actually playing the song, as a scroll 29 player,
I was greeted with an onslaught! You may want to lower your scroll speed for that one.
This definitely requires some training, but the note spacing seems pretty intuitive, so it might not be that bad.
At a first glance, I'd rate it definitely harder than Rise, but well within the bounds of RO32 SV. A good pick.
[sv2] Rockefeller Street: ratio + memo
Where Acorn would just be acc with SV flavor, this separates slow jam but very readable and acc'able
verse sections and choruses that you just have to learn. The choruses do not have intuitive note spacing,
so there's a slight memo aspect to it.
I think this is strictly easier than Death Mashina, a bit easier or on par with Rise, and I won't mention Acorn.
While the SV parts definitely justify the categorization and its difficulty belongs to the upper bound of RO32,
I expect the non-memo parts of the song to be ratio battles.
[ln1] Press Start: release consistency
It's pretty long and rather relentless. This properly tests one's LN release and reading consistency
and I expect many games on this to come down to unfortunate chokes.
Uncontrollable remained manageable due to it mainly being single LN notes at a time, only staggering rice around
them as flavor, whereas this features a lot more LNs proportionally. It might be slower and less dense,
but it's definitely harder. I think it's a proper pick for RO32.
[ln2] Boys in Kaleidosphere: Crush on You, but faster
This features a lot of the same tricks as Crush on You, but also adds bursts here and there while being overall faster.
This will definitely separate the LN babies from the LN grownups, as was already the case with Crush on You in group stage.
I don't know if I'd have upped the difficulty that much from Crush on You, given the average LN level, but it might go
better for the motivated with more training.
[acc1] Replica no Koi: a jumpstream stroll
This tests jumpstream proficiency with some standard patterns, but also with some split trills, which is interesting at this speed.
However, it felt slower than Sweet Witch Girl (correct me if I'm wrong), which was the jumpstream acc equivalent of groups.
While I felt Sweet Witch Girl was on the upper bound of groups acc difficulty, Replica no Koi feels slightly too easy for RO32
in comparison. All twists taken into account, including a short but chokeable LN section, it feels only slightly harder than
Sweet Witch Girl compared to other categories' difficulty upgrades.
[acc2] Despair of Elferia: Kitsune no Yomeiri, but wait there's more!
Upon sightreading it, I felt it was kind of similar in features to Kitsune no Yomeiri, the group stage's speed 2.
Of course, Kitsune ended up acting as "acc 3" so it feels justified to see these features in Despair of Elferia.
What's different though is the last half of the song which throws some quite tricky and very chokeable rolls, an interesting
flavor to what would essentially have ended in a ratio battle. For these reasons, I think it's an interesting acc pick which
manages to stay within the bounds of RO32 difficulty. Plus it's a banger.
The rolls may be "speed category worthy" but they're only towards the end, which limit their score impact, and the rest is
pretty straightforward for people who were good on Kitsune no Yomeiri (i.e. a lot of people).
[speed1] Solar Storm: stream consistency
Pretty standard 200 BPM stream map. When you compare it to the Big Black which is 180, it's strictly harder, but Big Black offered a middle section with bursts to keep people on their toes.
Being quite straightforward, it will come down to individual players having the speed to be consistent or not. If both do,
it will basically be a ratio battle. I think it's proper difficulty for RO32.
[speed2] A Lasting Promise: yo that's fast
Yet another speed stream, but it's 270 BPM wtf yo. There's the added element that the streams are not constant, but
mostly by groups of 3. It allows players who don't have the speed to cheese the timing by playing 1/6 at the price of accuracy,
while rewarding players who actually can play these accurately with that accuracy.
There's also other ways to "cheese" it, including some minor manip and jumptrilling in places. I think battles on this one will
be really interesting if players adopt different approaches. It lies on the upper bound difficulty for RO32.
Comparing it with Dopamine which was the speediest bursty map from groups, this may be harder for some due to speed, easier to
some due to lack of tech/LN. Considering Dopamine was probably too hard for groups, but perhaps suitable for RO32, this is another view.
[tech1] Duality Rave: jacking it
This features 160 BPM jumpstreams while also including a lot of minijacks as a plot twist. 160 BPM jumpstreams I think would be
the average or slightly lower for RO32 speed picks, so when you compound it with 160 BPM minijacks, it makes for a quite spicy
pick.
It's pretty long, so it tests consistency with the above. Comparing it to the groups tech consistency pick, which was Lily Clock,
this is a clear step up in difficulty, though in a different way.
[tech2] Super Lady: jacking it harder
This also features jacks, but instead of jumpstreams you get a lot of grace notes, some very tricky stream bursts, all in a denser package.
Duality Rave's minijacks are faster, but leaves breaks to recover; Super Lady is slower but more relentless in its approach.
I cannot compare it to Dopamine since they're difficult in very different ways, but this may be slightly easier to slightly
harder than qualifiers tech/hybrid, depending on who you ask, which I guess puts it in a decent enough place difficulty wise.
[hybrid] crossing blue: "speed 3", but with LNs
It's fast enough to act as a third speed pick. While the speedy parts are interspaced compared to the denser speed picks, this
is not a pushover, even for RO32.
It's a pretty spicy pick, definitely on the upper bound of RO32 difficulty and well harder than I'd have expected for a hybrid pick.
[tb] chrono diver: death by LNs
I feel like this tiebreaker will favor LN players in a pretty major way. The SVs are well appreciated as very scary flavors,
and overall this map is really relentless for RO32. I don't expect anyone to FC it if any match comes down to TB.
The balance, as a typical ravioli map, is geared towards LN and hybridey tech that doesn't offer that much pure speed breakaways. We'll
have to see what players can do with it, if it actually comes down to this tiebreaker.
Overall word and extra notes
I've noticed that rice-wise, speed was predominantly stream-based. Jumpstream is featured in other categories, but in slower variety or accompanied by other troublesome flavors (e.g. jacks). Considering qualifiers speed was undeniably jumpstream, this
is kinda interesting. I'm guessing they'll come in due time.
I think with this mappool, we'll see more conventional, by the book plays than with the groups mappool because this RO32 mappool draws the line between categories better than groups stage, where some categories could cross others. We'll see how it goes in practice, this is not necessarily a bad thing overall; I just anticipate it might not spawn as many "interesting matches" as the groups mappool.
In terms of difficulty balance, there's a noticeable step up from groups, but without it being totally overkill. I think the growth is well managed.
Post-match and practice retrospective
[sv1] Death Mashina, more like dead mashina
100% ban rate. Yep, it happened.
It might be a work of coincidence with every single matchup having at least one memo SV-averse person, but that should be pretty rare, especially with as many people as in RO32. This is obviously a sign that memo SV should be toned down.
[sv2] Rockefeller Street, or 1273 chokes
I found it to be extremely easy and ratioable in practice (pb: 992k, 1001/81/1/1), but it's actually really unnerving and choke-prone to play in-match. Not the ratio battles I expected at all. Given the average score of everyone, I think it did its SV job very well. It was also a banger and a popular pick!
[ln1] Press Start
This definitely separated the less from the more LN fluent players in matches, so I think it did its job well. Very choke-prone indeed.
[ln2] Boys in Kaleidosphere
The more likely ban for LN-averse players, including myself. Allowed players who agreed on not banning it to have LN showdowns, which was good.
[acc1] Replica no Koi
Quite choke-prone due to its length and LN section in the middle, and perhaps all the rest as well. I think what's inherently different about this and groups JS acc (Sweet Witch Girl) is that this is more relentless in its approach, despite being slower, so it ends up being more chokeable I think. So in the end, this may have been harder than Sweet Witch Girl.
[acc2] Despair of ELFERIA
Definitely gave the edge to the more ratio-minded players, but the last half chokes did indeed give some very entertaining matches. As expected.
[speed1] Solar Storm, or "acc 3"
The player roster in RO32 is speed-minded in very scary ways, which turned this proper speed pick into an acc pick for a good bunch of us. I'd like to think its straightforwardness aided in picking this as an acc pick rather than other actual acc picks, but I could be wrong (especially since I did not pick this).
[speed2] A Lasting Promise
This absolutely made more of a difference skill-wise and players weren't able to ratio very well in this relentless storm. I thought maybe this was too hard but seeing the relatively insane average skill, this may work as a baseline, albeit a slightly high one.
[tech1] Duality Rave
It turned out to be a consistency battle, probably centered on the jacks (especially the first chorus's ones), which is what I think was intended. I think it was a good pick.
[tech2] Super Lady
Contender in most bans due to its relatively high difficulty compared to the rest of the pool. Only picked once, which made the difference in speed/tech skill. Probably a call to tune it down.
[hybrid] crossing blue, or "speed 3"
I think it gave more advantage in the speed department rather than in the LN department. I think this should be balanced more towards LN, perhaps a tech/LN balance worked better.
[tb] chrono diver
Conversely, this gave way more advantage to more LN tech (not LN/tech, but LN tech) minded players, as I expected. It broke the ties, sure, but I don't like the way it did for some matchups.
Overall
It didn't exactly end by the books, but perhaps at least more by the books than groups stage. I think it turned out well despite the flaws.
Oh yeah this is what I'm talking about. This is much better to learn than Death Mashina without being dead easy, definitely learnable even without going into the editor.
I think it's slightly harder than qualifiers SV, which puts it in an okay place for RO16. I don't remember if qualifiers SV is supposed to match RO16 or quarterfinals though.
There is some level of LN difficulty, but the LNs are mostly used as part of SV (just release on time) so I think it's fine.
[sv2] Sunset Tea Cup: "hybrid 3"
Look I'm just gonna say it: I think this is the worst pick of the tournament so far, even taking Death Mashina into account.
Death Mashina was unbalanced for its round, but it was hard due to its SV nature. This has challenging SVs which do fit RO16, but is also compounded by non-trivial LNs, and then LN releases in the chorus with heavy SV... and non-negligible speed. Without SV, this would have fit at least groups hybrid, which I don't think is okay for a RO16 SV pick.
Why is it the worst pick of the tournament so far? Because this pick is the most notorious offender (among others) of the balance of the RO16 mappool being noticeably off. This effectively skews the mappool towards LN, and not by a negligible margin. Also, this is not necessarily bannable for LN-averse players due to the hybrids, which are properly more brutal.
[ln1] Ne, Issho ni Kaero
It's slower and more mellow than Press Start, but it's also trickier. This is definitely harder as a LN consistency pick.
I think this is on the right difficulty curve for LN consistency.
[ln2] Arc
Hello juan! This is trickier than Boys in Kaleidosphere, which was already pretty challenging for RO32. I don't know if I'd have upped the ante on the difficulty there, given the RO32 average scores on Boys in Kaleidosphere, but we'll see.
[ln3] Flamingo
I feel triggered as a Clone Hero regular. This is not simple: the releases and control are tricky to nail and will absolutely tank accuracy for a fair amount of people.
Depending on who you ask, one may have more trouble on this than on LN2. Again, I'm not sold on upping the ante that much from the already challenging RO32.
[acc1] Stand Out Fit In
At 126 BPM, this is quite slow and mellow, but the jumpstream and even handstream patterns thrown in do make it match with Replica no Koi. Some minijacks might even tip it towards a bit trickier than Replica no Koi.
In terms of difficulty curve, I think this is on the right track. Now this map is pretty much slow hybrid though, which adds to the LN bias.
[acc2] A-E-U-I
I think this may be easier than Despair of ELFERIA, which is a weird step back, though one could argue that Despair of ELFERIA was pretty hard for RO32.
There is some slight, minor LN trickery in there as well, but it's sparse. I think it's gonna be most likely a culprit of acc drops though.
[speed1] Angel Dust
170 BPM jumpstreams, we're getting there! This is not your regular saturday morning cereal jumpstream though, as some of the patterns are kinda awkward, and there are also some chunks of one handed plays here and there.
I think it's a step up from the streamfest of RO32, and also from the 160 BPM standard jumpstream from Duality Rave. It's different from either A Lasting Promise or Solar Storm from RO32, but I think it's a pretty sizeable step up, but one that's pretty justified looking at the average scores of RO32. Just don't make it overkill for quarterfinals.
[speed2] Toxic Vibration
This is longer, more consistency based, but also includes some spicy trills at no less than 197 BPM. Because of the trills, this is slightly harder than Solar Storm, but they never last for very long, which is a bit of relief. Overall, this is the easiest speed pick which may be borderline "acc 3" for players who are very comfortable with speed.
There are also a couple of LN choke points thrown here and there, which while not being overbearing nor really hard, contributes ever so slightly to the LN bias of the mappool.
[speed3] Phantasma
Relentless 200 BPM streams. They're much more extensive than Solar Storm and feature some tricky patterns and transitions as well. A sizeable step up.
[tech1] FIRE FIRE
Oh god what is this. Very awkward patterns, and some quite mindblockable content. And it's at 190 BPM.
This might be speedy enough to be a speed contender, but its awkwardness justifies its tech categorization. I think it might be a bit too speedy for a RO16 tech pick, especially compared to the actual speed picks.
Very much trickier than Duality Rave, or even Super Lady depending on who you ask. Too much of a step up in my opinion.
[tech2] electro peaceful
Minijacks, minibursts, mini LNs, mini everything! But it's not mini difficulty! This is trickier than Duality Rave and Super Lady, definitely.
Again, this contributes to the LN bias of the mappool. The schlongs will make accuracy dip for a fair amount of players.
Depending on who you ask, this may be harder or easier than FIRE FIRE, but either way I think this might be too much for RO16 tech.
[hybrid1] Doom Crossing Eternal Horizons
Tricky LNs, okay tech section. I think this is more LN oriented than it is tech oriented. It's quite different from crossing blue, which was more speed than LN biased.
I think this might be okay for RO32 though. Just maybe slightly more balance between tech and LN would have been appreciated (though it might be fine since hybrid2 is kinda less LN oriented), but I think this is on the slight upper bound of RO16.
[hybrid2] ACTION
This is the kinda less LN'ey counterpart, quite tricky with many jacks, and also quite relentless. Also very different from crossing blue.
This is definitely tougher than last round, but this might be proper difficulty. We'll see.
[tb] Stray Star
I think this has the right balance between speed, LN and miscellaneous features. I think this is a good RO16 tiebreaker.
Overall
There's a definite steer and bias towards LN in this particular mappool, and it's pretty overbearing, especially for players who overall did decent, but not exceptionally well in RO32 LN picks, if you compare it to rice oriented averages.
In hindsight, the "no hybrid picks until a certain point" model of MBS1 might have been more welcoming to players who are just starting to pick up actual LN-oriented maps. That way, you could allow yourself more slightly hybrid leeway for acc or speed picks without being overbearing on LN. But this might also be a rice bias speaking.
The difficulty bump is in my opinion more pronounced than going from groups to RO32, which if I understand correctly was already supposed to be substantial. And we were promised a not-that-big step up from RO32 to RO16? Hahaha tough luck.
The transition from RO16 to quarterfinals should be carefully thought of here, and I don't mind if it yields a weird difficulty progression. I'm not particularly happy with this RO16 mappool. There are some good picks and I think speed is on a good way, but overall I don't think I'm gonna enjoy my practice as much as previous weeks.
