OT14 Thoughts
Posted on: July 9, 2021, at 12:48:06pm

Because I enjoy reading these, although mine may not be too interesting...I haven't entered an OT in many, many years, and although I am at my best-ish right now, I am still on the lower end of the current division 4. I'm going to try and get as far as I can, but will likely go on vacation around the time of round 4/5, though it'd take some super boosting to get that far I think.

I'll also ghost the other lower divisions (and maybe sometimes play the higher songs on downrates)

Currently level 69, and the division 4 boundaries this time are 65-76ish.

Round 1 - Debut - bmah - AAA!

What can I say? It's a bmah chart alright. It plays to my weaknesses, as the main hard parts IMO are the 3(?) minijack sections and the ending is easily chokable as I have to really push my left hand to hit it. Luckily, I have been really improving on my minijacks prior to the OT and managed to snag a decent score which I then improved to a AAA!!! Might be the only song I'll be able to AAA this time, but I'm happy with this :)

Round 2 - Forever - Rapta - 1-1-0-1

Well, another song that's really tough for my skillsets, though I imagine most songs from here on out are going to be tough for me. This one is similar to the last in that it's tame for the most part until we get to the part with fast alternating jumps. I can deal with the first sets fairly well, but the latter two I end up dropping a lot often. Managed to get 3-0-0-3 on my first night of attempts after not too many! That far exceeded my expectations, though I noticed all of my goods and boos are in that one spot. I think with some time and effort, I could AAA it, but it'll take some real work to get it done in time :D Hopefully what I have already is safe, but I'll try to improve ^^

Update: Managed to get the hard part AAA'd in ISO, but I'm kinda losing motivation playing in general due to having horrible sessions, so not sure how much further I'll go.

Update 2: Got 1-1-0-1! That's 3.0 raw goods, and potentially as far as I'll go. Dropped a good and a boo on the easier jumpstream part, so I know the potential for AAA is here still, but it's a rough grind for me.

Round 3 - Ordine - Psychotik - 10-2-0-0

First day attempts got me at a 10-2-0-0, not bad for the theorized difficulty of 67-70. I'm loving this chart, and it's my favorite file so far for D4 because it seems very grind-friendly, as in, there are multiple difficult parts, but they all seem very approachable given a good practice/grind. Compared to Forever, the round 2 chart, since that one felt like no matter how much I grinded the hard part, I physically could not improve within the week to be able to hit it even occasionally and it was demotivating. I can definitely do better, and am hoping to mid-SDG it or better, but I am also on the final boss in I Wanna Be The Boshy, so the free time I have is getting eaten up by that quite a bit :P

Update: I became the Boshy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CBCQIZsqcc

If I'm out this round, it was a good run. I'm starting to hit a burnout phase of ffr where I'm barely stringing together a couple of plays every few days. I know I have it in me to mid-sdg Ordine, but I don't think it will pan out before the round is over. However, the round 4 chart is dubstep and looks awesome, so I hope I'll still be in so I have more motivation to grind it out. It's getting to the point where basically everyone left is better than me so I have to really grind hard to have a chance at staying in, and tbh I'm not completely feeling the grind much right now in ffr; been focusing at other things. Maybe things will change by tuesday though~

Round 4 - It's All Over - Rapta - 10-0-1-1

Well, this song is great! The dubstep songs this OT have been my favorite charts so far, between this and Propane. Definitely more fun to grind for the tournament than the last Rapta file~

On the first day I managed to get 10-0-1-1 (beats my ordine score...whoops) after only a handful of attempts which I'm super happy with, as the next day it was hard to even maintain scores <20 RG. Maybe I'll come back to this, but I have very little motivation since I won't be participating really in round 5/6 if I make it that far, and I knew that from the start. So, I don't want to take away a place from someone who is here and able to grind (But conflicted because my original goal was round 4 but now top 16 is actually a possibility). However, I can safely say I will come back to this chart many times in the future (maybe as a potential oni candidate???). It's just a lot of fun to play. There's one thing this file has in common with Ordine in that the intro is either AAA-low sdg, or piles and piles of goods. It can be very mindblockable so I'm being wary of that. Also the roll-walls (I think is what they're called) are fantastic and I love them; they're just really fun to hit and probably at the fastest speed I can hit accurately currently.

End Comments

Well, I'm out. I'm not surprised as I barely played the file, as I started to mini hiatus from ffr due to burnout, other games, and a vacation coming up next week. I'm just super glad I made it into top 16, which surprised me as I'm a lower level for the division (Levels 66-79ish are in d4 and I'm 69 still). It was a fun run, and I'm looking forward to the next previews streams and trying out the new lower division files as they come out :) It's always nice to chill with everyone, and hopefully I'll be back participating in next year's OT (plus I'll be graduated so might have more time to practice~)