Z-I-v Freestyle Showcase 2021

I just wanted to say thank you to the judges - I've been so happy to participate and this really helps me feel like I have a path to improving. I'm planning to add a CSP to Furuchansu now that I've heard the feedback, can't wait to add the update. I really admire the creative energy you all put into this, glad I can join in~

Question: Do any of you share in-progress charts in Discord to critique as you go? I'm just sort of working on my own, just wondering if it's okay to share in progress stuff on a contest...

Nowhere, I was so happy to see you join this contest, and it was great to see what you entered. Looking forward to seeing what you submit for round 2.

I don't personally share my in-progress stuff. It's up to the competition leader to determine if it's okay.

Me? Personally, I don't share WIP stuff very often, but if I do, it'll be via sharing gameplay videos on YouTube (but not sharing the files themselves). That's perfectly legal.

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Great to know! I am gonna keep at it and keep submitting files to learn, glad the early charts are finally starting to flow better. I haven't been playing long so I'm still nervous to make a challenge chart that actually flows well, but we're giving it a try this time.

Thanks y'all, I can't wait to send in my second entry!

Quick reminder that there are exactly five (5) days left to submit your round 2 entries! I'm not sure if everyone forgot or is saving them until the last minute, but I thought I'd post here anyway just to be safe.

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Round 2



simfile



14

10

6

3

lmao going from a 100-ish bpm song to a 200-ish bpm song

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Round 2 Entry: Singles Division

Hope y'all enjoy the chill float through the clouds as we sing about our feelings~

Much love to the artist - Andy Rowell, who recently released this on their album "On My Mind"



Shy by Andy Rowell
SP: 5 / 7 / 9 / 11

Yo who dis submitting yet ANOTHER original song?

Doubles Division Round 2

phaseclapper - Z-I-v Sound Team "Karl with a K"

D- 7
D- 12
D- 14
D- -

https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/viewsimfile.php?simfileid=48668

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And my Round 2 (Single Division) entries is up.

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Well, I might as well explain my entry:

It Happened in Sun Valley / Stan Marsh and Wendy Testaburger
: 8/ : 10 / : 14 / : 12

So, I did have some (non-South Park) ideas for round 2, but I decided against submitting them mainly since I had also been occupied with finals, and they would be good fodder for future competitions. However, recently I had gotten my hands on Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics, where this song comes from, and I realized how fun this song would be as a Stepmania file! The only problem is, this song is kind of Christmas-y (maybe less so than I originally thought), and there was no guarantee there would be another contest within the next month to submit to

So, 10 hours before the deadline, I decided to sync, step, and make graphics for this song.

I think for the amount of time I spent on it, it came out rather good! Unfortunately, this song appears to be live BPM, so the sync is probably not perfect, but it should be tolerable. I don't know if the fast BPM is accurate, but I think it definitely lends a Heaven is a '57 metallic gray ~gimmix~ fast swing vibe that should lend a fun freestyle feel. The might be a 13, but it also has a rather high note count, and based off my last attempt at a swing song, rating it a 14 might be safer. Fair warning- the chart is based off the chart (but does have more 12th patterns), due to time constraints.

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Round 2 files are now locked in! Well, some of the files were technically uploaded/updated after the deadline, but this time, I'll let it slide because I was late to the party as well. That's what I get for transitioning from being a night owl to being an early bird, but keeping the deadlines at 11PM local time.

Anyway, confirmation of the charts to be judged this round:

Singles Division:
Alla Turca Con Passione [TonyAkita]
Babylon [Astroman129]
カジノファイヤーことみちゃん (Casino fire Kotomi-chan) [FoRCeDNaTuRe]
Coconuts [Astroman129]
eRAseRmOToRpHAntOM [FoRCeDNaTuRe]
インフェルノ (INFERNO) [Daffa212162]
It Happened in Sun Valley [Nezemarth]
カマす犬 (Kamasu inu) [Lampshade]
レッツゴー！陰陽師 (Let's Go! Onmyouji) [Daffa212162]
MUTSUKI [TonyAkita]
Shy [NOWHERE Dance Club]

Doubles Division:
DAWN -THE NEXT ENDEAVOUR- [FoRCeDNaTuRe]
LALISA [tsugaru7reveng]
NIRVANA [tsugaru7reveng]
phaseclapper [SirDj0nt]
取り残された美術 (Torinokosareta bijutsu) [FoRCeDNaTuRe]

FOR JUDGES ONLY: In case you need it, here's a link to a pack containing the round 2 files only. This pack as well as the round 1 pack from earlier will be taken down at the end of the contest.
https://drive.protonmail.com/urls/6G7FCV2AKR#NLRQNSQAHFMx

For everyone else, I have made a "definitive edition" of sorts for the full contest pack, which contains some additional content and updates that are not possible if I were to generate the pack from ZIv (another reason for the delay on my end). Here's a list of all the changes I made:

- all custom ZIPs are used if available (mainly enabling animated banners)
- added t7r's singles charts from his round 1 files
- added/fixed song transliteration info for NOWHERE's and Lampshade's files
- added missing chart credits for NOWHERE's, Nezemarth's, and Karl's files
- added graphics for MUTSUKI (you're welcome) and fixed song title/artist info
- fixed a bug where Shy's jacket is also showing up as a CDTitle
- fixed artist capitalization for INFERNO
- added a group.ini file, which includes pack metadata and song sorting in Japanese alphabetical order (for supported themes)

If you somehow previously downloaded the pack before, I very much recommend re-downloading it to receive all of these updates.



Round 2 Scores

Singles Division:

Doubles Division:


Final Contest Standings

Singles Division:

Doubles Division:


Contest spreadsheet for all statistics:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T0Yxz5uAWaD-QB9P5E8wTe_eWZInnQ7JzEAIHv-xhec/edit?usp=sharing

My feedback:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R_QNIoRYFb-M6iRsGYWhR5luDUTQ8Dexq9VU_XCttjc/edit?usp=sharing

RacerAce's feedback:
https://paste.sr.ht/~led/7c44c7568ffc787a5891ec3e0f5e28764ed7cdf1

t7r's feedback:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qxm30f0u2Q4pkYWLb7Ksr8EOLkLdvNGSdtRtu8zckY4/edit?usp=sharing

Final Thoughts

Congratulations to this year's contest winners: Daffa212162 and FoRCeDNaTuRe! The battle for the podium places in the singles division was hotly contested, but in the end, レッツゴー！陰陽師 (Let's Go! Onmyouji) being the best file of the contest by a mile was what ultimately pushed Daffa over the top. Unsurprisingly, FoRCeDNaTuRe's doubles experience led him to an easy victory, although t7r has shown some huge improvements in the second round, which I'd say is also a win in and of itself.

Big thanks to RaverAce and t7r for taking the time to provide some valuable feedback, and to everyone who participated this year! While the turnout this time around wasn't quite as strong, the chart quality and the learning experiences along the way were anything but!


And now, for the proposed changes for next year's contest (this won't take long, I promise):


Suggested by RaverAce, this bit of extra granularity in the scores should provide a clearer picture in terms of how the charts actually rank against each other.


While I wanted to discourage throwaway charts from making it into the pack, I now believe that the positive reinforcement will probably enough on its own. This should encourage not only more charts to be submitted, but also some more creative or out-of-the-box charts as well. [And I didn't even realize until now that there has been only one shock arrow chart in the entire contest.] Also, this should simplify the calculations for myself whenever I edit the spreadsheet.


The actual new time can still change, but basically, I just wanted to change to something that is more sensible for the US and Japanese time zones. Me having to stay up late at night to work this contest has become more and more of a burden as time went on.

Just like last year, feel free to provide feedback or comment on anything else that I may have missed too. Thank you all for playing!

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The real spreadsheet is now updated, included are those awards I'd give.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qxm30f0u2Q4pkYWLb7Ksr8EOLkLdvNGSdtRtu8zckY4/

and HOLY MAC 'N CHEESE BALLS.

Congratulations to Daff_4K and forcednature for winning the respective divisions! You guys truly deserve it.

I am truly honored to finally win a Doubles round after how many last place finishes in Tower of Eight Panels last year and subpar doublestepping oversights to some of my own files that I've since tweaked. Yet another special mention to forcednature for pointing out where in my Retrograde transitions are off, which certainly served as warmup to my last two files (dude you should be a judge next year lol). Definitely took led's and RaverAce's feedback into consideration as well.

Also would like to give a special mention to RaverAce for actually taking the time to judge both divisions. While I'm surprised that even with little Doubles charting experience, insight from someone that is continuously learning certainly helps and would hopefully further polish not only the participants', but their own Doubles charts down the road as well.

Lastly, many thanks to led_light for hosting this contest! Your patience to give feedback across all difficulties in both play styles is truly appreciated especially for two years in a row!

Thank you for playing!

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wow, i got 3rd place for this round!!!! this was such a fun contest, and it's great to see that i didn't get last place for any of the 2 rounds compared to last year :)

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