By the looks of it, it's been 10 months since I've played this game at all. Should be interesting to derust by jumping right into an OT.

R1: Clocktown [Onefin & Stardew] (AAA)

Pretty straightforward file, good for getting myself eased back into the game. The flams in the beginning had me a bit scared at first, but weren't too bad. Ending was absolutely nasty though, choked quite a few promising runs on it. Not too bad though, only took me a handful of attempts to get the AAA.

R2: yarn ball (AAA)

Always love getting to grind charts with such distinct section boundaries. Managed to get reasonably consistent on the 32nd note bursts, but then the grace notes often tripped me up. Was stuck with a blackflag for a while and wasn't sure whether to bother going for the AAA or not, but I thought the chart deserved it.

R3: vivid landscape [Heavy] (AAA)

Precisely my kind of file. The JS and syncopation weren't much of an issue for me, the main blocker for me was learning where the chart deviated from that by adding 24ths or grace notes. My first run was a blackflag, with one good in the short break before the ending. Stayed rather consistent on it, and grinded out the AAA in about half an hour. Definitely feeling like I got pretty lucky with this pick.

R4: My Rage Towards Society (1-0-0-1)

Lots of trilly JS/HS, ended up being quite hard for me to control. Either I'd inexplicably hit the pattern or stumble and drop a ton of goods. Fun chart for sure, lots of patterns that were extremely satisfying to get right. I'm sure I could have gotten the AAA with enough grinding, it just would have come down to getting a run with no random small mistakes.

R5: See in Rainbows (7-1-0-1)

Very bursty file, definitely had me a bit scared due to the frequent use of OHTs. My consistency wasn't quite where I wanted it to be, but it ended up being enough to pull off an SDG, so I'll take it. The files are pushing me a lot further out of my comfort range, so I'm going to have to hope for one that plays to my strengths going forward.

Definitely nice to get to play in another official tournament! The last one I played in (on an old account) was the 10th, and it feels like it's been ages since then. Luckily though, it seems I'm at about the same skill level, if not just a hair better.

R1: A Tiny Spaceship's Final Mission (AAA)

Really cute chart, and a great song to start off the tournament with. Nice and straightforward chart, with a few bursts for flavor. Took me 4 tries for the AAA, but only really because it's 1AM and I can barely keep my eyes open, oops.

R2: One Big Beautiful Sound (AAA)

Absolutely love the vibe of this song, even if the story is rather grim. The chart also lends nicely to being broken up into distinct sections, which has made compartmentalizing it for practicing a lot easier so far.

For a few hours, the best I had was a flag. On the last note of the song. But after 11 (?) more full attempts and a pile of restarts, managed to just barely get through the ending burst. Round 3 is definitely gonna be tricky.

R3: Angel Wing (0-0-0-1)

These charts are definitely starting to push me out of the comfortable AAA range. Love the song, the time signature changes make it a really interesting listen and play. The chart's definitely tough, but there are only four really difficult parts for me. There's a roll right near the beginning and end, and two dense chordjack parts in the middle.

Managed to get a really good run surprisingly early, though I got a boo somewhere random in the middle of the chart, unfortunately leaving me with a booflag. I'm feeling myself start to mindblock on the opening rolls, and hoping that I can pull myself together and get the AAA, though luckily I'm sure it won't matter for getting through to the next round.

R4: Shut Your Mouth (5-0-0-1)
Definitely underestimated this one. I'm usually pretty solid with jacks, so I feel like that helped me get a decent score rather quickly. Unfortunately I ended up mindblocking part of the intro much sooner than expected, and haven't improved my score at all since the second day of the round.

Really fun chart though! I don't mind continuing to grind it, even if being blocked on a few parts can get frustrating.

R5: cat1 cat2 and cat3 (2-1-0-2)
Difficulty went down this round, but it feels like this file tests an entirely different skillset. Lots of handstream and a few small rolls. I'm usually not too confident with more dense JS/HS, but I picked up this file pretty quickly!

Got 4.2RG on the second day of the round, and I'm rather certain that should be enough for me to make top 8. Going to take a few more stabs at the song before the round ends, but I'm gonna mostly focus on SDGing some harder stuff.

R6: Hate Everyone (8-0-1-1)
Wow, ok, a 77. That's quite the step up. Extremely bursty file, which definitely doesn't cater to my strengths. There are two particularly tough patterns that were up to a coin toss for most of my runs, but I guess I did just well enough to sneak into the top 5.

Not sure how much further I'll make it from here, though.

R7: Raid Ethnic (39-1-2-5)
Well, I think this is the end of the line for me. Another super bursty chart, full of 64th bursts, flams, and a few jacks at the end for good measure. I did a lot better than I expected on the bursts, and I've gotten some solid scores on 0.8x and 0.9x rates. But unfortunately, scoring sufficiently well on an 84 is a bit too tall of an order for me right now.

Looking forward to revisiting this song once I've improved a bit more; it'll be a good way to see how far I've come between now and whenever that is.

But for my first OT in 6-ish years, I'm pretty happy with how I did. First time getting top 8, all of my previous runs just ended with participant. Looking forward to seeing what the top 3 are going to have to play for the final, and honestly, I'm pretty glad I won't have to play it too.

Thanks for the fun competition though! I'm really proud of how the rest of the top 5 did. Out of everyone remaining, I think at the beginning of the tournament, I was (at least one of) the highest-rated. But there have been some massive skillboosts since then, and only a slight improvement on my part, so everyone else basically soared past me. It's awesome seeing a tournament push so many people to improve so much, and I'm eager to see where they go from here.

Thanks in part to the tournament, I've just barely broken into D5, so I'm looking forward to future OTs with a new set of rivals.