Z-I-v Freestyle Showcase 2020

Virus Funk / Nhato



SP: 4
SP: 7
SP: 10
SP: 13

How do I change the size of the image on this post?
I can't seem to figure it out, so I'll just leave it as is for now

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Something like this (without spaces surrounding the brackets): [ img width=256 ] (image url here) [ /img ]


So, darkanine mixed up the time zones and told me he will post his reviews within the next hour or so. Even though it is technically late, I'll let it slide just this one time. After this post should be his reviews for round 1, but for now, I have his scores, meaning I can finally reveal the actual scores for Round 1.



And finally, here is the contest spreadsheet containing all of the scores in one convenient place. Overall, there is certainly quite a bit of variation in the scores compared to my own, but I guess that is to be expected with a panel of judges and given enough charts. I hope this is all insightful to everyone heading into Round 2; I'm certainly interested to see what comes out of this next round.

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Everyone should be noticing the pattern here by now.

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I'll let ideas naturally come lol right now I'm trying to think of something for the second entry. Hope you like classic DDR 9-footers at 190 BPM.

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Chewingood :0

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and may have similar groove radar values but has shock arrows and a rather different selection of patterns. I'd have loved to chart a 14 without shocks instead but I thought this was better as an 11 with shocks. The 14 was risky.

I would've gone for this instead of Pretty Savage back in Round 1 but welp guess I'm stepping K-Pop songs... TWICE.

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Due to ZIv being down for a while right before the end of the submission window, I have decided extend the deadline by 24 hours (so now until December 15th @ 6AM PST / 9AM EST / 11PM JST). Consider this post your 24-hour warning before submissions finally close for good.

Also, in case anyone is wondering where darkanine's Round 1 reviews are, he told me that they were delayed due to school commitments and will be released sometime before the Round 2 results. His round 1 scores will still stand regardless of whether he does post them or not, though; reason being everyone underestimated the amount of time commitment required as a judge, so I have to be pretty lenient for the first go-around in this new contest.

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Another double entries release time~

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Round 2 Pack

Round 1+2 Pack

These versions might not be final, though, because I found some errors in a few Round 2 files that I would like to be resolved as soon as possible. Everyone affected has my permission to update the files in the category in order to resolve these issues.

The following files are currently not in the auto-generated pack ZIP due to special characters in the folder/file names. Please re-upload your simfiles using the romanized names instead (or in the case of Ice♡Pop, replace "♡" with a space or another character).
-Ice♡Pop
-ぎんがてつどう９９９
-ぱんだしんけん１、２、３ ～ちえ！おっしょさんにはかなわないや！～
-パンリーピーポー

Also, Ice♡Pop's custom ZIP is missing charts while the auto-generated ZIP doesn't (although I had to change the file names for these charts to show up in SM).


APPEND: I've added temporary (fixed) copies of the above simfiles in the contest category so that the auto-generated pack works now. The packs in the Google Drive links will remain as the definitive versions, however, where Ice♡Pop and ぎんがてつどう９９９ currently use the new files, while ぱんだしんけん１、２、３ ～ちえ！おっしょさんにはかなわないや！～ and パンリーピーポー will still use the custom ZIPs. The links above also remain the same.

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New ZIP with MV is now available, as well as a chart preview on the simfile page itself!

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Oh, I edited Panda Shinken in a panic

At least the pack's files show the correct filenames!

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UPDATE: While I am just about finished with all of my reviews, the other judges are still not. So although I would've liked to wrap up this contest before the end of the year, that possibility doesn't seem likely at this point. To that end, all of the judges have now agreed to a final deadline of January 11th (6am PST), by which time the other judges have to send me their scores at the very least (or else their scores will not count towards the final totals). I am making reviews/feedback optional this time to accommodate for any busy schedules, but I encourage the others to still submit them if they have extra time (if only for the sake of score verification or transparency).


After a bit of a delay, the results are finally in!

Round 2 Simfile Standings:


Final Contest Standings:


Spreadsheet with All Scores and Standings

My Round 2 Comments

tamtamino's Round 2 Comments


And with that, I can officially wrap up this contest (finally). Congrats to Gameoson for winning the first ever Freestyle Showcase (which we kinda expected after the first round, even though he didn't end up making the best file of the contest). And thanks to everyone for participating in what is possibly the most experimental/unique contest on ZIv to date. Obviously, not everything went according to plan, so I've decided to make a list of changes that I plan to make for next time (some of which will be in the next contest for sure, others not so much).

Proposed changes for the next contest:
1. Start the contest earlier in the year (probably immediately after Summer Contest). I want the contest to actually be finished by the end of the year.
2. Personally invite some other steppers to be judges. This is just a personal note on my end, since I failed to do this for this contest. I have a few people in mind already, but I'll hold off on invitations for now until the start date actually approaches.
3. Add a preliminary period for open sign-ups as judges (if there are still slots available). That way, the judges will be decided before the start of round 1.
4. Clarify rules around judging and situations when any judges go rogue. Most likely, it'll be just increase the judging time to a (still) reasonable amount, but no extensions/postponements will be given. Of course, things would go much more smoothly and quickly if I were the only judge, but when a panel was finally added, I should have added a set of rules in place for the whole panel to keep everyone accountable and on-time.
5. Add the doubles division. Judges can choose to review one or both divisions.
6. Change the condition for elimination after Round 1 from "bottom 50% of scores" to "all (of your) files each score a 5 or less". I think this strikes a better balance between giving newcomers a chance to participate and limiting the number of low quality files in the pack.
7. Add stricter requirements regarding the formatting of uploaded simfiles. tl;dr I see a lot of people blindly clicking the "Download Pack" button without realizing that some files may be missing or not working, so I want the auto-generated ZIPs (for each simfile and for the entire pack) to work too when I click "Generate Pack". I'm not dealing with the hassle of getting files to work after the deadline any longer either.

Post-Contest Questionnaire (you can answer as few or as many as you like):
1. Is three weeks time per round for submitting files too much, not enough, or just right?
2. Is two weeks time between rounds 1 and 2 too much time, not enough time, or just right? How about the 4 weeks between the end of round 2 and the final results?
3. Should judges be required to include reviews/feedback along with their scores? Sounds like a no-brainer, but keep the previous question in mind too.
4. Are the weights given to each difficulty fair? Personally, I thought 2/3/3/4/4 was a nice balance between something like 1/2/3/4/5 and equal weighting, but maybe you have something else in mind.

Feel free to comment on the changes or anything else that I may have missed too. Thanks for playing!

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First off, congrats to Gameoson on a well deserved 1st place and shoutouts to everyone who participated, playing the charts was a lot of fun. Thank you to led for hosting this contest & the judges for judging, participating was really fun. I am very excited for Freestyle Showcase 2021!!


Post-Contest Questionnaire


Personally the 3 weeks felt a bit long to me I had no time constraints at any part of the contest, but I can imagine that others with a more strict time schedule might have, so I really have no problem with the 3 weeks.


I think the judges should take as much time as they need! Playing EVERY difficulty of every file (most likely more than once) & giving them a score must take a lot of time. To be completely honest the 4 weeks after Round 2 *did* feel a bit long but considering that it was Christmas, NYE etc. it's totally fine.


Obviously it's really nice when they do but I think it shouldn't be required.


Now I don't have a problem with the current weighting (as it is a nice balance) but as someone who puts a lot of time into lower difficulties I would have personally preferred if it were something like 1/3/3/3/3.



yay! :>

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