Tournament of Immortals 6: Missed Connections

(electron position)- For the beginner chart, I felt that the ends of the 4th note patterns in measures 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, could use jumps at the end of each measure to accent, without making the chart too much more difficult. The note on measure 22 felt unnecessary, and detracted from the simplicity of the section. Measures 34—46 had arrows that didn’t go to the drums at all, and I’m not too sure what they even go to; I really didn’t enjoy this too much. The up arrow freeze at measure 47 could be shortened to end at the middle of measure 48, though this isn’t too bad. If there was one thing I like about this chart, it’s the down arrow freeze that occurs in measure 49, which feels very powerful thanks to the sound it corresponds to; I would lengthen this to end at measure 57, though. The rest of the chart plays fine, but I would fill this chart up with a few more streams and make it a 4 footer.

The basic chart is okay, but far too easy for a 6, and should be a five. With the consecutive 4th note streams toned down, this would suit well for the beginner chart. I would suggest adding longer 4th streams to make the chart more interesting, especially after measure 98.

The standard chart is quite a bit better, but considering that this is a 10 footer (likely a 9 on the DDR scale), I would have definitely made the basic chart harder. For measure 44, I felt that reverting to a basic up-right pattern wasn’t necessary, and you could have made the pattern a little more interesting by changing the third arrow from facing up to facing left. The 4 arrow pattern in measure 48 leading to the long freeze was also unnecessary; I would have instead omitted the second 8th note and simply made the long freeze one left-right jump. For measures 98-103, I would have preferred to have the same type of jump pattern used in measures 25-30 instead of having simply jumps (if that makes sense), using consecutive jump to accent as needed. For measure 107, I think it would have been cool to have the last two 12th gallops be left-right and up-right, respectively, instead of both being down-right.

The heavy chart is pretty good, though the inconsistent patterning in measures 45-46 is somewhat strange. (For measure 48, I would have made the triplet go left-right-left and make the freeze arrow into a single left-right jump, but that’s just me.)

The challenge chart seems to work, but I cannot for the life of me analyze such charts well. The only thing I would change is to make the 4th streams early on in the song (within measures 17-22) consecutive jumps when no other types of notes are around, but there’s nothing else I can really say.


Boundless- (Sorry, but in case you didn’t know, making a file private doesn’t exclude everyone else in the category from seeing the file. There’s not much point in looking, anyways, since no actual criticism exists.) Looking at this file two weeks early? Well, why not? Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the music; if Darkanine can come up with a song that better suits my taste and can also create excellent charts, my vote will go to him.

The heavy chart was pretty nice; the note placement was good, and I liked the rolls. (I don’t understand the mines, but that’s only because I’m a terrible stepper.)

The standard chart is good for what it is, with some nice patterns, but perhaps a harder chart would slot well between standard and heavy.

The basic chart is also very well put together, with the steps making logical sense; in fact, the chart basically just flew by me the first time I played it!


セシボン・キブン- The challenge chart was fun for the most part, but I wish the snare in measures 19 and 23 was stepped or at least acknowledged (by a 16th stream or a roll). Maybe that’s just the .sm file, though.

UPDATE: I finally placed the file into Stepmania 5, and saw the rolls in the challenge chart where I initially wanted them to be. I also was able to see the quasi-stop scroll changes, which were enjoyable and a nice touch.

As for the heavy chart: from measures 10-17, focusing on the drums instead of the prominent synthesizer came off to me as a little weird. I liked the karaoke stepping here that was absent from the challenge chart, though, and the chart was still very fun overall.

The standard chart’s triplet stream from measures 10-17 felt a little boring, but I liked the freeze arrow in conjunction with the jacks. The rest of the chart seems to be fairly nice, if a little easy for a 7.

In the basic chart, the omitted 4th notes in measures 11 and 15 were a little odd. The freeze arrows in measures 22 and 24 didn’t seem to have much reason to be there in my eyes, but there were other aspects of the chart that I enjoyed, such as the corner jumps from measures 34-39, the freeze arrow doublesteps in measures 58 and 60, and the crossover streams from measure 62 to the end.

The beginner chart was also nice, with a nice progression of notes and nice freeze arrows in measures 58 and 60. Some of the patterns, though, might be a little unfitting to play in the traditional DDR helper style.


Day Dream- Not a big of the 17/16 timing, but I liked the melody.

I liked the use of jumps/single arrows in the beginning of the challenge chart, though I disagree with the single-arrow freeze notes. Measure 21 has an interesting footswitch, which I’m guessing is intentional.

The toned down opening makes sense for the standard chart, but I think that the heavy chart didn’t have a reason to have this compared to the one used in the challenge chart. The triplets to account for the 17/16 timing bogged down the fun for me (especially the jacks in measures 29-30), though that’s not necessarily the chart’s fault. The 16th note streams in measures 39-40 and measures 41-42 didn’t make any sense to me, and I’m guessing that they go to a hard to hear section of the music. I liked the 32nd streams at the end of the songs though, which were missing from the challenge chart.

The standard chart flowed nicely, and there wasn’t much I could really complain about here.

The basic chart was a little odd for following the quantizations (maybe a generalization of the main guitar would have worked better), but it’s still great, and I don’t have any complaints.


Death By Glamour (KAZOO’d) - Splendid beginner chart! I really loved how you used freeze arrows to incorporate crossovers and spins into the chart. Since I played this chart in the style of the DDR beginner helper, returning my feet to the pad after every arrow (except with freeze arrows), the only minor irk was in measure 36, with the down-right arrow pattern.

Great basic chart as well! I liked the more complex spin at the beginning, and I loved your use of freeze arrows in this chart, as well as the general streaminess of it.

For a chart that doesn’t have any 16th notes, the standard chart was nice as well. Nice use of freeze arrows, lovely direction changes, and interesting patterns are abound in this chart.

The heavy chart is nice and rounds out the simfile nicely. I liked the layering of the various parts of the music, as well as the 24th streams.

Also, this must be your best set of graphics so far! The set is interesting, and though unfortunately the text of the banner is obstructed, this is a step up from your previous graphics.


Does Not Compute- Beautiful drawing that you used as the base for your graphics. (The graphics are also fantastic, as expected.)

The beginner chart is pretty nice and holds up on its own! Some more interesting patterns could have been used here without being too inappropriate; for example, in the left-right-left-right-left pattern in measures 74-75, perhaps you could have changed the second right arrow into an up arrow.

The basic chart was also excellent, with logical steps that flow nicely. This chart might be pushing it a little bit for a 5, but that isn’t necessarily too bad.

The standard chart also flows well, though nothing really wowed me here. (Likely this is more the song’s fault than the chart’s fault.) The left-down-right crossover motif was a nice touch, and I would have liked to see that more, rotated into different forms, such as down-left-up or left-up-right.

The expert chart was very nice as expected, though it may be pushing a 9, I would have liked to see the slowdown part stepped a little more (also in the standard chart), but it does provide a nice break.


Drop pop candy- The expert chart was pretty nice, especially with the patterns and direction changes; not much to say here.

The standard chart was also pretty cool, and I liked how the 16th freezes wored. Personally, I felt that replacing measure 24’s pattern (left-right-down-up) with down-right-down-right would have been a better fit for the vocals,

The basic chart was also pretty good, though in my opinion, too easy for a 3. (I would rate it a 2.) I would have liked to have seen quarter notes completely fill measures 28 and 45 (though for the latter I envision a direction change which may be too extreme)

The beginner chart was nice and minimalistic, and seems like the easiest chart of all of these files to get into. I guess there isn’t much room for any pitch relevancy…


Encounter - I guess the challenge chart serves its purpose, but it’s definitely mean-spirited, such as in the spin of measure 15 and the pattern in measures 82-83, both of which are difficult to do without doublestepping.

Heavy chart was fairly good. One thing I would do differently is the 4th-16th-8th jumps, which I would hold off on until measures 56-63. Also, I would include the 24th freeze from the end of the challenge chart. However, that’s how I’d personally step it, and the chart is still excellent.

The difficult chart was pretty good for the most part. There were doublesteps, but all of them were easy to avoid, with the exception of the one in measure 47, which I would avoid by lengthening the freeze arrow to the next 8th note. Other than that, I would step the whole 12 stream in measure 61, rather than just have gallops, and have 12 notes in place of the 8th note in measure 64; however, the chart is still quite nice.

The basic chart was also very nice. I liked the spins, but they required multiple read-throughs for me to understand them, and the final one seemed to leave me backwards. Other than that, the only other changes I would make is for the 12 stream to use all four arrows, and for the note that starts the final section in measure 70 to face right instead of up.

I’m a little irritated about the beginner chart’s mis-quantization from measures 26-29, where the 4th notes were stepped at the start of each measure instead of to the music. The same issue also occurs at measures 48-60. The rest of the chart is fine, though some 4th jacks could be used near the end to help add a little spice.


Kitty From Hell- The challenge chart was pretty nice, though the 2nd roll (the down-arrow 4th note) did not make much to me, seeing as it was on a static musical note. (I can see why you made it a roll, though.) I liked the warp and the mine foreshadowing (as I like to call it), though I wished enough mines were used to fill up the screen when playing at a regular scroll speed.

The heavy chart is also nice, though I find it strange that the gallops in measures 39-40 only had the first half stepped fully. The 8th stream’s omitted note was still present in the music, but it’s harder to hear than the other notes, so it’s not too bad. I wish the mine foreshadowing used in the challenge chart was also used in the heavy chart.

As for the standard chart, the omitted note from the beginning pattern was a little strange. For measure 8, I would have spliced a 16th note in between the 4th note and the 8th note; ditto for the 4th/8th note combinations in measures 26, 28, and 30. Other than that, there isn’t much I can say about this chart, and I like it.

The basic chart is also good, though definitely too difficult for a 4 footer. I disagree a little with the 8th note triplet in measure 23, but other than that, I also cannot say much about this chart.


Light Up My Love- For the heavy chart, the beginning pattern is fine, though the seemingly random freeze note in measure 7 is a little jarring. (I can see why you put it there, but if that’s the only instance you can find, it’s better not to make that note a freeze arrow.) You can also afford to make the right facing 8th note in measure 9 a freeze arrow that ends in measure 10, adjusting the rest of the chart up until the stop as needed. Measure 21’s pattern is missing a down 4th note at the end, so that should be plugged in. The 16th stream in measures 26-27 is also a little jarring in this chart, though musically it makes some sense; for this chart, I would be conservative with such long streams and just make them use two arrows. The left 4th note that starts a pattern in the middle of measure 37 also starts an 8th late to the vocals, so be sure to avoid the vocals. Assuming you’re stepping the bass in measures 43-55, the pattern only very vaguely goes to it, especially the 12th notes. I could barely hear the bass with my headphones, so I feel like you need bass-heavy headphones or amplifiers to hear the bass better. Even giving the benefit of the doubt with this section, I feel that you should try to avoid stepping to sections that are hard to hear, or at least give a disclaimer in your file advertisement (in the contest thread)/file page; if you aren’t sure, give the music+chart to other people and see if they can find the correlation. (Since the lower difficulties got the bass down exactly as I hear it, however, I doubt that this is the case.) The first 4th note in measure 56-57’s jack is extraneous, so I would eliminate it, and make the previous 4th note a left-right jump. Even then, I’m not too sure the jacks are the best way to step vocals. The next pattern also has a similar problem with an extraneous 4th note. The 16th notes in measures 60-67 are overbearing, and should be toned down, perhaps layered with the main melody. The pattern with measure 67 is not too great, but the fact that this is only used once is far worse in my opinion. This chart isn’t as improved from Element of Spada’s heavy chart as I had hoped, but in all fairness, there are some more interesting patterns here.

As for the standard chart, the beginning 8th notes that go to the piano are very nice, and would also be at home in the basic chart. There’s a minor doublestep early on, which can be fixed by changing the right arrow in measure 8 to an up arrow. The quarter note freeze is an 8th note ahead of the vocals, and the instrument that it might be stepped to is barely audible. The patterns up until ~measure 37 flow well, but don’t utilize the repetition motif that the higher-tier steppers tend to use. (Send me a personal message if you want me to instruct you how to use this in this song/chart.) The only exception is the blank space in measures 35/36, which was inappropriate. At measure 37, the arrows are leading me to face backwards, which I’m not a fan of, especially at this difficulty level. I noticed the first 8th note in the left-down pattern in measure 55-56, which should simply be omitted; I also noticed that the 4th notes that start the next two patterns are an 8th early. I assume you were trying to generalize the vocals, but this is a very bad example of generalizing. There also seems to be an omitted up arrow in measure 61 at the end of the up-down pattern, which also creates the doublestep; add that arrow back in, and the problem should be solved. Measure 67-74 is blatantly inconsistent (though the ideas within it aren’t bad), in contrast to the earlier patterns, and detracts from the chart. The more difficult patterns (which seem to only be the 8th jumps this time) aren’t quite as ridiculous a contrast as those in the basic chart, but they simply do not fit the song, and should not be there. Also, the jumps that are spaced two 4th notes apart don’t keep up the beat too well, so I would prefer you fill up the rest of the 4th notes.

The basic chart is pretty good in the beginning. However, the half-hearted attempt to layer the vocals and the instruments at measure 26 was not well executed, and would have been better if you did it properly (4th-8th-8th). Also, the missing 8th note in measure 42 is… not good. Stepping the bass in measure 43 was a little strange, but it wasn’t too bad. There’s also a minor doublestep at measure 55; to fix this, change the direction of the left/right arrows in measures 55-57, make the left arrows in measures 59-60 face right, and make the up arrow that follows face down. However, I’m really not a fan of the harder patterns, particularly the one between measures 64/65 the jacks in measures 67/68 (which don’t even make sense in the rest of the files), the pattern of measure 71, and the pattern of measure 73. I know that you stated in your file advertisement that you wanted to use the lower difficulty charts, but radical a change for the steps is very unnatural. First off, if you want to include these difficult patterns, please take them into more consideration when rating your simfiles; no 4-footer I have ever seen (at least from an official DDR game, and also from almost all of the simfiles from Z-I-v) has ever included the types of patterns I have mentioned; this file should be rated at a least 5 feet. Secondly, you should make the rest of the file somewhat more difficult (for early on in the song, as an example, perhaps you could use 8th triplets), especially the long breaks, or tone down the difficult patterns. Lastly, as a general piece of advice, but specifically for these patterns, you should try to repeat certain patterns within the same section, like how many higher tier steppers step. (Take a look at measures 17-20 of drop pop candy, as a specific example.) To be fair though, this file felt a little better overall than Element of Spada, your last file as far as I know. Like O’Brien said, it isn’t easy to become sane :3


ミュン・ファン・ローン – The heavy chart was pretty nice, though I wish there were more 16th streams, particularly from the guitar-based ones; I noticed that the second half of the gallop stream was during one of the 16th streams, so it probably would have been more appropriate to step an 8th stream instead. The first rolls were a nice touch, but I feel like the second set of rolls were unnecessary. mf32892 has a point when it comes to the doublesteps, though, and I found two. The first one comes in measure 36, as the player turns left, then performs a left-right jump. As your chart stands, the player would have to straighten out before the next notes come in, or suffer facing backwards for a significant amount of time; I would fix this from changing the pattern of the notes after the left-right jump (left-right-down-up-up left jump) to right-down-left-up-up left jump. The second one is in measure 47, with the notes after the freeze arrow causing the disrupting the player’s flow unintentionally; I would change the note pattern from down-up-right-left-up to right-up-left-left-up, or, if you don’t want a jack, reform this section more substantially.

There were a few generalizations in the standard chart that were less than stellar, and I did not enjoy how measure 57 was stepped differently from the different instances (personally, I would have added an 8th note to bridge the pattern and make it 4 notes long). Other than that, I really liked the chart, particularly the staircase leading up to a jump in measure 35, and the 4th-8th-16th crossover in measure 43.

I liked the simplicity of the basic chart; personally, I would have preferred to have the main guitar melody (such as in measures 4-5) have the 8th note correctly stepped, as well as stepping correctly the 16th note like in measure, but since the former also has a beat going to it, and also since this chart is a 2-footer, these aren’t huge qualms. However, the pattern in measure 9-10 is a little mind boggling to me, unless this is your form of pitch relevancy; I would change the pattern from up-right down to down-left-right, or make it a footswitch (and perhaps mark it with a mine) and make the pattern down-right-up, also changing the note on measure 11 to a down arrow.

The beginner chart was quite nicely put together, and has the arrows in places where they make sense. The only nitpick I have with the chart is in measure 25; I would have replaced the left-up-down pattern with a right-left- up to better suit the melody’s pitch.

“’the long holds into doublesteps were cool in Mint’ they were spins, but you liked it and that's what counts” – XxMokou98xX

Mint- The expert chart was, hands down, the best freestyle chart I have seen in this set of simfiles! Congratulations on using freeze arrows, a few 16th notes, and a lot of spins (some of them difficult) to create a chart I can really dance to! And you probably know that dancing is key to DDR, or at least, it should be. This is probably an even better freestyle chart than the charts found in the early DDR games .

The standard chart was a splendid freestyle chart, with some very cool spins. Not much to really say, except that it also captures the essence of classic DDR, as far as I know.

The basic chart is pretty easy (and has some nice spinning direction changes), and would make for a nice freestyle chart. However, I noticed when alternating my feet on the pad (as opposed to playing it beginner style, which isn’t too hard on this chart), my body start to face away from the screen from measure 29 onwards, as my body faces backwards on the down-left panels, then completely away from the screen after the right arrows come up. This isn’t too bad due to the low difficulty, but if this was unintentional, I would replace the left arrows starting in measure 29 with right arrows, and adjust the rest of the chart to fit.


Ref- The basic chart was very nice, with great freeze arrows, nice direction changes (but no spins), and a tasteful use of 8th notes. The only thing I wasn’t a fan of in this chart was the ambiguous direction changes, such as in measure 28’s down arrow freeze. (I’m not too sure how to clarify the foot patterns, but maybe place a mine on the arrow which corresponds on the foot that is supposed to step on the down arrow?). Also. I’m personally not a fan of how from measure 68 to the end of the song, you have the arrows set up so that the players face away from the song, since the previous arrows tell me to place my left foot on the down arrow, instead of my right foot (which seems to have been the intended foot).

The standard chart was pretty nice for what it is, though for the patterns like those found in measures 42 and 66, instead of have a right arrow leading into a left-down pattern, I would instead have the pattern go up-left-right-left-right-left-down-left.


refractive index- Regarding the ratings with asterisks; I think that the beginner chart would be rated a 6-7 on the X-scale due to its 8th and 16th notes, while the basic chart would be rated a 9. The standard chart seems fitting for an 11.

The challenge chart had some slight oddities, such as the 16th notes leading into the left-right jump at measure 20 (I couldn’t hear the 16th note), and how the reduced intensity steps in measures 49-50 were stepped, but I still liked the chart quite a bit for what it is, especially the 32nd notes.

The expert chart was very nice, restrained chart, in contrast to the balls out challenge chart.

The standard chart is quite nice, though there was an extra 16th note in measure 20 that you omitted in favor of stepping the nearest 8th note, which I found a little weird; stranger still was the fact that all of the 16th notes in the next occurrence of the melody (?, I don’t know the exact words for it), measure 24, were stepped. Other than that, the chart is fun and well-balanced.

The basic chart was also fun, though more difficult than the others I’ve seen so far.

I find it strange that you use 8th notes in the beginner chart, let alone 16ths, but at least you put them where they count. As for the chart itself, I enjoyed how it focuses mostly on 4th streams, keeping it safe for a fair amount of the time, but also daring to venture and spout out more interesting patterns.


Solver- Initially, my thoughts were: “Oh my goodness… this looks to recreate my last matchup all over again…” However, now that we are this far into the voting process, my file is 2 points ahead of you at the time for writing this, and everyone who has commented has said that our files were a very close match. With this in mind, it seems like this is more of a survey to see which type of chart people prefer: a DDR-style chart (mine), or a more gimmick-laced ITG-style chart (yours). I was somewhat hoping that you would pull out one of your 7-footers, but even still, I knew that you would be a good match for me

Basic- A little difficult, but slightly less so than something like refractive index’s basic chart. I liked the variety of steps as the songs went from 70 BPM to 140 BPM.

Standard- I wish it had the more daring 12th/24th patterns of the heavy chart, but otherwise, this plays like a dream.

Heavy- Interestingly soft opening, right up until the 16th/32nd notes start to appear. After that, I really liked how the 24th/32nd notes are seamlessly intertwined (in addition to the crossover), though I found a doublestep-esque near the end of measure 6, and I don’t know how to perform the pattern without doublestepping. (Which unfortunately bogs the file down, since it is in such a difficult area.) Other than that, though, this file seems like it would fit into the TOI semifinals.


Weeaboo- The beginner chart was very easy, and had it not been for the high speed/speed gimmicks, this would definitely be a 1 footer. I sort of wish that more had been done with the chart, particularly near the end of the final 350 BPM burst with arrows, but the notes that were in this chart all made perfect sense, and can easily guide a new player into quicky-scrolling/speed changing charts. All things considered, this was a very minimalistic beginner chart compared to the other ones I’ve been seeing, and I would take this over (electron)(position)’s very… unsure… beginner chart.

The basic chart also felt like it had much more confidence in itself than (electron)(position)’s basic chart. With a generally higher amount of 4th note streams and 8th notes appearing during the 175 BPM parts, this actually felt like a legitimate 6 footer. But, it’s only fair if I nitpick at the things that I would like to change within this chart. For starters, I personally felt that the jump-freezes in measures 16 and 24 were a little too distracting, though they definitely make sense, and maybe would change them to simply be freeze arrows. I might also make the down arrow at the start of measure 52 a (down-left) jump to accent it. (My justification for having this be a jump, as opposed to the ones of my previous nitpick, is that the jump is at the end of a stream). Some sort of change in the steps for measure 68-70, such as making all the arrows jumps or utilizing jump-freezes, would be cool as well. A triplet in measure 98, like those found in surrounding measures, would be fitting as well. For the ending, however, I definitely think that you should have ended the freeze arrow on the last stop (where the 8th note would go), and make another freeze-jump on the last note.

The standard chart is also very nice and balanced, though perhaps a little easy. I was a little befuddled as to why you had measure 49 was a simple up-right-up-right-left pattern, as opposed to the more complex patterns prevalent throughout this section of the song. The layering during the following 175 BPM section was a little inconsistent, particularly during measure 58 and measure 59, where, instead of having a 4th-16th-8th, there are just two 4th notes. The little gallop at measure 61 also surprised me a little, but I guess it makes some sense. This could pass as a 7 footer, but other than what I have said, not much is wrong with this chart.

The heavy chart was also very nice, though the 16th burst at measure 61 provoked the same reaction from me as the standard-chart’s gallop did. Not much else I can say here, since I’m not very good at judging difficult songs.

As for the challenge chart- I have no idea what that mine in measure 55 is doing there, but I guess it’s there for a reason. Other than that, this seems like a pretty fun In the Groove style chart.

Weeaboo [warpdr!ve] - 9
(electron)(positron) [NuVirus] - 2

DOES NOT COMPUTE [brunobg24] - 11
DAY DREAM [ledgam3r1279] - 1

Solver [HealingDMax300] - 5
Let Me Be Free [Nezemarth] - 7

encounter [hypnoticmarten77] - 13
Light Up My Love [JunkoXXX] - 0

Death By Glamour (KAZOO'd) [LegendaryDJXYZ] - 2
Ref [DDRDAIKENKAI] - 10

drop pop candy [Lisek] - 6
refractive index [Gameoson] - 5

ミュン・ファン・ローン [Pandemonium X] - 4
Mint [xXMokou98Xx] - 6

セシボン・キブン [mf32892] - 6
Kitty From Hell [Loodee] - 4