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7th Official FFR Tournament – Wrap up!!
Welp, it’s over. Fiiiiiinally over. Eight weeks later (give or take a few extra days ~_~) and we’re crowning our six champions to rule over FFR with their iron arrow-smashing fists. There has been literally hundreds of tokens given away and millions of credits, so let’s take a quick look at the results for each division:
Huge grats goes out to not only our winners, but everyone that participated in the 7th Official Tourney! I hope all competitors have enjoyed themselves and that you’re now in the process of enjoying your prizes if you were skilled enough to snag something! Special thanks to all simfilers that were able to provide some pretty great files for this tournament, and sometimes on rather short notice. Until next time!
…
Blah, I started writing the aftermath as one giant excerpt from Skeelie’s tournament log, but it was just so ridiculously inappropriate for the front page of FFR (including Frank Munoz befriending the other D5 competitors, and then ‘discovering new colors about himself’ when he brutally murders the four of them in their sleep shortly afterwards)…so I ended up scrapping it altogether. :<
Instead, how about some good ol’ fashioned closing thoughts from yours truly?
D1: Our top five D1 finalists were pretty darn consistent throughout this tourney. Fifth place finisher dancemanmasta9876 even managed to snag AAAs on each of the first six round songs! Gargoyle was a big notch up in difficulty for you guys, and it was exciting to watch the five of you duke it out in territory that you weren’t so comfortable with. In the end, Ntc2415 and the master of dance couldn’t quite hold on and became our 4th and 5th place finishers respectively. Valiant efforts though, gents :’)
Freak was a really rockin’ D1 final, filled with virtuosic guitar leads to really bring in that ‘oomph!’ that a finale should rightfully have. And damn, what a finale it was, two of you scored better on this than Gargoyle! And megaman108, our third place finisher, still managed a clean score (a full combo with no averages or boos!) Damn impressive if you ask me for such a tough closer. After all was said and done, Skeelie managed to edge out KrazyKitsune by two goods and three boos, taking first place for D1. Congrats to him!
Now D2. Lol, this division…
No seriously, you guys should not be this good at 200bpm jumpstream wtf. Booflags and blackflags on Destination Of The Heart…
Okay, okay, let’s jump back to Round 7 first. Velaciela. This was definitely a toughie to PA with all those hands followed by speedy 16th jacks, and I DEFINITELY wasn’t expecting an SDG cutoff, let alone such a low one at three goods! JJTrixX and HobobotheClown put up very solid fights with scores under 20g (which are still very impressive scores on this file from D2 players), but our top three competitors proved that they were just on an entirely different level…
…and would continue to prove this in the next round lol like seriously, five goods clean was THIRD PLACE?! I’m sorry, this was just absolutely ridiculous. I’m finding it difficult to gather words that can accurately express just how insane this final was between the three of you. 200bpm jumpstreaming is something that even some D6 players aren’t completely comfortable with, so to see ReikonKeiri’s five clean, followed Acid Dropplet’s blackflag and The~J~MaXx’s booflag (The~J~MaXx also AAA’d Velaciela slkdgmlsdgklsadgsdkwat)…mad props to the three of you. Hell of a finish. Kudos to The~J~MaXx for first place and such a fantastic final two rounds. It’s really great to see D1 and D2 players improve tremendously over the course of just eight weeks. I’m sure we’ll see some of you in D3 or even D4 during the 8th Official :’)
D3: I was in the middle of writing what happened to D3 players in Skeelie’s tournament log before realizing it definitely needed to be scrapped (just look at the final round song for D3 if you want some insight as to what I had written at the time). Anyhoo, let’s look at Round 7 real quick. Gravity Blast, D3’s longest song with a notecount approaching 2,000 arrows. Despite its length, you guys held up real well. Our top three players worked their way up to scores which were separated by one good (if you disregard a sneaky boo that happened to make a casual appearance in Salitz’s score). Unfortunately as a result, we had to say goodbye to 25thhour, who had made quite a bit of noise after quickly nailing CQ Boss only minutes after Round 6 had started, and HellsRequiem, who put in a GREAT frickin’ effort to try and whore out a passing round, after stating that the round definitely didn’t play to his strengths. Excellent job on the top 5 finish for you two.
High ex-FMO material awaited Salitz, Crazyjayde, and rebelrunner26 during our final round. Jasmine (Camelrape Remix) brought some long jumpstreaming, 32nd rolling, and a few really sneaky trills and jacks. Fan-favorite Crazyjayde, the player who snagged first place scores for every other round prior to the final, was able to toss up a formidable 7g SDG on this beast of a file, shutting out rebelrunner26’s impressive 14-0-0-1 resulting in his third place finish. But in the end it was Salitz, FFR’s Resident Resident Evil Merchant, who shocked the masses by pumping out a godly 4-0-0-1 (wtf) and claimed first place for himself, as well as all event and support tokens. Cheers bud, nice one.
D4: Round 7’s Level Skip was D4’s first taste of Guru territory. Interestingly enough, the scores didn’t really seem to reflect that -_- Cutoff for the round was set at under 6 goods, quite a considerable improvement over last year’s cutoff for Tsugihagi Construction in D4 (which was floating in high SDG territory if I remember correctly) given the difficulty of both files. Kukulaka, who started to come out guns blazing at the beginning of Round 4 with a Flamingo AAA, picked up our 5th place spot, followed by noname219, who solidified his place in 4th with 11 clean.
Round 8 generously provided our top three D4 finalists with the very well-received Tenimuhou, stepped by a curious group of users under the collective tag FFR All-Stars. A file stepped so well that it even received praise from Xx{Midnight}xX, file basher extraordinaire! It was damn long, though. Tenimuhou clocked in at over four minutes in length with 3,000+ notes, almost twice the notecount of Spaceman, D4’s second longest file of the tourney! But that didn’t stop our D4 players from putting up some ridiculous scores. Novelties, who held a collective 5-0-0-1 for all rounds combined prior to the final, was able to jumpstream, polyrhythm, and wtfwall his way to a score of 14-0-0-2! But it was AD4M-V who was able to do all those things just a teensy-weensy bit better, almost finishing the round with an SDG and landing himself a spot at the top of the dashboard and a place within the top 10 high scores for the song! DayMan951 claimed in the tourney thread that perhaps it was his strategy to lull his fellow competitors into a false sense of security, giving him the opportunity to slam a winning score during the final moments of the round with enough time to spare to enjoy a glass of champagne! …I was waiting for that to happen, jerk. Way to let me down. Lmao great job you three, a fine show put on for onlookers~
D5: On to D5. Hero Reconsidering provided our final five with a mixed bag of tricks, containing a ‘lil bit of errythin’ before capping off with some light 250bpm jumpstreaming…just for good measure. Our top four finishers shocked a fair few D6 players by supping their scores on the file! Even though scores were very tightly clustered on this file, sadly we had to say goodbye to ddrkid007, or EtienneSin as some of you ThirdStylers might know him as. And I do believe bob bob, another crowd-fave, was just coming back from vacation this round and was finding it difficult to get back into the swing of things. Eh, it happens, it’s summer. Props on top five to both of you, I wouldn’t be surprised if I see you guys in D6 next tourney~
I’ve saved this paragraph as my last to write because I honestly don’t know what to put lmao. Undiscovered Colors was D5’s final round. It was an interesting file that received interesting reception…I think that’s good, I’ll keep that! powerfull scared the competition several times throughout the round by consistently pumping out sub 20g PA runs, but unfortunately couldn’t string together a full combo with such impeccable PA. And in FFR, one miss could completely destroy your score. RagedBerserker and Frank Munoz traded punches back and forth throughout the round, until finally Frank Munoz slammed down a 24-1-0-3 score on the dashboard, pulling ahead of his competition by a significant amount. And it ended up being good enough to consolidate his number one spot. Oniderp 4eva.
D6: And then there was D6. Wasn’t surprised at all after seeing who made top five, well-earned spots by all of you. Yeah, System Doctor really sucked to score on. However, some of you developed some rather innovative approaches to tackling those ending 32nd bursts! Top three scores on this file were closely knit together (as expected of our top three D6 titans, each of who managed to snag AAAs on the first six round songs), and we said goodbye to xXOpkillerXx (thanks for reppin’ Canada all the way to Round 7 :’) ) and Zyphoror a.k.a. Jumpstream Japan. And yes, in case any of you were still wondering, I’m still quite mad that Zyph miraculously managed to scrape by during Shotgun Surgery……..I mean c’mon, we just needed one more person to improve and we’d’ve knocked out a demi-god in Round 3 but nooooooooo, you guys were too busy getting drunk and punching car windows…
(lol Dylan you know I love you)
On to Round 8. Jamais Vu, Dossar’s gift to the three of you. 230bpm dense jumpstream really isn’t a problem for the three of you in terms of keeping up with the speed, but throw in some really crappy one handed anchor patterns and split 32nd bursts, and of a sudden it becomes a bit of a challenge. It was an incredibly exciting nail-biter when samurai7694 and TC_Halogen were sitting tied at 2-0-0-1, with AlexDest straight on their tail with 4-2-0-1. Preparations were being made for a tiebreaker final! Prep was put on hold shortly after, however, when Halogen put on his big boy pants and improved to a blackflag! Time was passing and the dashboard remained the same. Then the final day came, and last minute efforts were put forth by both Alex and samurai. It was a nail-biter, but in the end they just couldn’t quite match Halogen’s score. Great effort from the two of you, awesome job on placing top three! And my sincerest of congratulations goes out to TC_Halogen for finally breaking the 4th place tourney streak and bagging a D6 victory. Well done and well deserved.
Love you all, thanks for a great tourney.
~One Winged Angel, nois-or-e, & bmah
***ALSO***
Some of you might remember MalReynolds, ye olde videochat/lit forum mod from before the great depression of FFR. He wrote a book! Check it out here and pick it up if you’re a fan of Mal’s writing!
7th Official Tournament – FINALS WEEK!!
So, One Winged Angel is missing in action since his last message to us all on the front page. Somewhere between America and Canada at the moment, but no-one can be certain. There are 18 of you remaining in the tournament, and I know we had hopes of him roasting each and every one of you that were eliminated this round, but that just is not the case today.
So, I am going to give you guys the option.
You can comment on this post with a plea to OWA and his magical writing skills, or I can wait 24-48hrs and just post the round summary and song reviews for this week that I wrote earlier. In any case, we have 18 remaining and only one song between them and their respective championship. . .
D1: Freak
D4: Tenimuhou
D6: Jamais Vu
7th Official Tournament – Semi-finals!!
Mmm, semi-finals. Our top eight in each division have been reduced to only five after 6 weeks of punishment, reduced to 6 if you are one of the guns in Division 1. Crunch time. …I’ll be completely honest, I haven’t been paying much attention to what’s been going on over the past week…so I’m going to make it up~
*ahem*
Tournament log, Day 42
I don’t know how much longer I can take this. I think it’s been about six weeks, I’m not too sure. It’s hard to keep track of time under these conditions. I’ve been stuck in this jungle, armed with only a keyboard, trying desperately to survive…and for what? A chance to snag a cleverly gimmicked vibradump token? Or a dumpstream file that’s borderline unplayable to almost everyone? Or Vrofl?! Sometimes I wonder if all of this was worth risking my life for…although a shiny badge that tells me I’m the best would be nice.
It’s been an absolute bloodbath. We started out with around 700, and in only six weeks, we’re down to less than 50. One might think that making alliances with other competitors could help increase your chances of survival. But the reality is, out here, you can’t trust anyone. No one will hesitate to turn on you at a moment’s notice, no matter how friendly they may appear. Four days ago, Zyphoror and subin were out looking for water. The two of them had been going everywhere together. Hunting together, starting fires together…sleeping together… That didn’t stop Zyph from shanking subin in the river when his back was turned. That river still runs red with Korean blood. Damn shame too, that was my main water source.
Each week, there’s been a new place in the jungle that will protect you from any and all danger. A green zone. A safe haven. It changes every week, but it’s become increasingly difficult to find as time passes. I’ve heard that competitors situated in the southeast end of the jungle, Region 1, found their green zone with relative ease this week. Six weeks in and six of them still made it guaranteed safety. Tournament hosts aren’t pleased about this. Not one bit. Rumours say that they’re going to up the hazards in that particular section of the jungle. They’re probably in for a lot of trouble next week. I’m praying for them.
Competitors DDRMXT and QueenChrysalis from Region 1 have fought well up until this point, but just couldn’t quite find their way to safety like the other competitors in the southeast. They were probably eaten by lions. Or ravenous ponies. Let’s just say ponies, that’s a cooler way to go.
It’s become increasingly evident that many participants have already completely lost their sanity. I won’t lie, I’m almost at that point as well. It was reported earlier this week that three competitors in the eastern end of the jungle, Region 2, participated in a sick group suicide of sorts. jductape, Infinity., and Totakeke703 were found hanging from a soursop tree, suspended in the air by the wired ends of their keyboards. I guess they just didn’t give a f*** anymore.
It’s been pretty nasty in the other regions as well. I’ve seen things. Gruesome things. Just two days ago I was out looking for shelter (it was raining pretty damn hard) when I spotted Reshiram, probably looking for food. He looked as if he hadn’t eaten in days. No more than five seconds later, a monstrous two-frame minijack stormed out of the sky and crushed him dead on impact. Made such a mess too. Six weeks in this jungle and I’m still learning of new ways to die. Findarian and Coolboyrulez0 were two other casualties during that brutal minijack storm. I didn’t see either of them, but here’s hoping their ligaments weren’t thrown as horribly askew as Reshi’s…
The remaining competitors have acquired this…unquenchable thirst for blood. But in a fight to the death, I suppose anything goes. After already reaching the green zone this week, TC_Halogen left to find EzExZeRo7497, a fellow competitor in Region 6, the northwest end of the jungle. Eze had been working his way to safety all week. He saw the green from a distance, but his frail, malnourished body was making the trek quite difficult for him. However, it seemed as though Eze had found his second wind when he was only 8 miles or so from the green. As he was picking up pace, the others grew quite worried, as he could definitely be a force to reckon with in these final two weeks. So samurai7694 sent Halogen to go blindside him with a Razor Lycosa. And he did. I found Eze about 2 miles or so from the green. Dead, with a slightly disfigured face and all of his teeth smacked straight out. And I think some pirates might’ve peed on him afterwards. Yes, there are pirates in this jungle. Deal with it.
The many perils and hazards in the jungle have managed to capture the lives of several competitors. I’m not too sure of specific details, but I’ve heard participants in Region 3, the northeast end of the jungle, have been gobbled up by crimson quicksand (r.i.p. Coveyduck), fallen into active volcanoes (r.i.p. elvis236), and drowned in peepee water (I’m not kidding, someone drowned in the river that everyone’s peed in at some point…oh dear God, I’m so sorry circle_q). In all honesty, I’d probably choose to go any of these ways over how some of the folks in Region 4 went. Heard they were cannibalized by an angry tribe of space pirates, quite possibly the same pirates that peed on Eze. At least d4u7211 got a nice meal before he was cooked – they fed him DarknessXoXLight and psychoangel691 to fatten him up first.
I don’t feel too great about my chances at this point. I’m tired, weak, hungry, sick, mentally and physically exhausted, and completely unmotivated at this point. I might take a page out of Region 2’s book and just end it all. I’ll leave what I know here ? hints for finding the green this week for those still in. It’s not much, but it might help someone who comes across this note.
D1: Gargoyle
A giant leap in difficulty from what you guys have been served up until this point. Should result in preventing another overflow of green, although not to say it isn’t possible… Learn where the 32nds are and stay on guard – not all of them are simple roll patterns. Might as well continue to keep your guard throughout the entire file, as the ending contains a little ‘surprise’ (that’s the nicest way I can put it)… Congratulations FFR Pro 21 for a great first chart in game. Too bad it’ll be the demise of not two, but three players this week.
D2: Velaciela
Very tough to find green on this one. Handjack anchors will probably give you guys the most trouble, maybe try hitting a bit harder during those sections? It might take a lot of practice to sneak by without picking up any boos on this file (I can foresee higher tier players also having problems with this file). The jumpstreaming sections might feel a little speedy for some of you. If so, might I suggest warming up on a slightly quicker file and coming back to DarkZtar’s Velaciela? It could honestly make a world of difference. Good luck, this is quite a step up for you guys.
D3: Gravity Blast
Fun. Very long, but fun. A parting gift to Region 3 from one of the deceased in Region 5, Reshiram left the five of you with an almost 2k chart packed with hands, jumpstreams, 12th gallops…and white notes. First time consistency is being demanded of our players in this Region. Not much I can offer in the way of advice on this one, gonna have to power through on your own… I suppose some of the hand + 24th note gallops towards the end can be cheated as a single quad if it’s too awkward to hit them separately? C’mon top five, let’s see what you’re made of.
D4: Level Skip
Guru territory. Something Region 4 has been unfamiliar with until this point. Wayward Vagabond’s Level Skip is perfect for Round 7. Reminds me a lot of Jamais Deux, which also tests a very similar set of skills (perhaps another file to look at this round while prepping for Level Skip?) Lots of speedy Grist-like 16th jack in this chart (hey, another chart to warm up with!) linked together by quicker double-time breakcore sections. Go for gold, gents, finish line’s almost there…
D5: Hero Reconsidering
Reminds me of last year’s Pandora. I guess D5 has a tendency of being served very short yet intense charts of brutal difficult at Round 7. Guys, don’t even touch this file at the beginning of a session. Well hey, I suppose you can do what want, but I’d wait until you’re fully warmed up before giving this a few goes for scoring. Don’t wanna develop any bad habits on this, even if it’s such a short file. DossarLX ODI packed in a bit of everything for you guys here. Lots of two-hand 8th note jacking, light but quick jumpstreaming, and brutally tricky 32nd and 64th rolls. God speed.
D6: System Doctor
Child’s play for the first 90% or so of the file, which is slightly upsetting. Anyone with pure trilling speed should make mincemeat of those split rolls, although I find that hitting staggered quads will also AAA through if your execution is correct. Ending 260bpm 16th stream followed by 32nd rolls could be enough to trip you up if nerves catch you, but I have a lot of faith in the five who are left at this point. Blame _.Spitfire._ for the hell you’ll be going through this round.
Time to find a sturdy tree…
also: my condolences to ULTIMEGA and his family, their cat Salem was diagnosed with stomach cancer and passed away today :’( r.i.p
7th Official Tournament – Round 6!!
What a week for our competitors. We’ve seen the top 8 change again and again, and in some cases even up until the last 10mins (rip VisD). All in all we have seen a furious battle of the arrow smashers in every division. A lot of the early favourites in the tournament have made their exit in the last 2 rounds, so perhaps it would be a good time to shift who you have your money on? In any case, our original field of over 700 has been whittled down to a compact machine of 50 arrow dominators.
Once again apologies for the post last week, I was lucky enough to have my computers power supply take a turn for the worst and lost all of my drafts within 2hrs of making the last front page post. But, have no fear! Our tournament fpp writer OWA is back next week to bring back the tension, suspense and pseudo-drama to our weekly look at the divisions/songs, so hang in there front page enthusiasts. Another note to be made is that we have officially hit the PRIZE ROUND!! The top 10-16 in divisions 3-6 are all eligible for tokens or credits or both! So check into the spoiler tags in the first post in the 7th Official Tournament thread~
Division 1: Need You
Another xKore song in FFR yay! Was the first thing that popped to mind when this chart came up, but a far leap from the dubstep that my ears were expecting to hear. A fun, smooth and short chart that will test our D1 players in their broken jumpstream + hands skills to try and secure themselves a top 5 spot for Round 7. 4th chart in the tournament for Elite Ninja~
Division 2: WHO GIVES A F***
An almost 5-way tiebreaker till a last minute improvement cut that number down to 4. Very sneaky D2, but we all have our eyes on you. Only 2 players will get through the tiebreaker, and even then they will have to have a go at topping their other 6 opponents that snuck in with their AAA of 16bitFruit. The main chart for D2 is a short and amusing track from ‘A picture of Finn farting’ by Renard stepped by myself. I hope some of the faster jump transitions don’t slip up our top 8 too much, this was really fun to step.
D2 Tiebreaker: Addict
jductape, angel6554, Totakeke703 & baldursgate will be playing this tiebreaker in the next 24hrs and sending me a score via PM. Non-submissions in this tiebreaker hold the same rules as the rest of the tournament, a score of 0 will be recorded as negative, and any negative scores means elimination. The song is Addict by DJ S3rl, which will serve as a token requirement for Wayward Vagabond‘s other chart Addict (Dr. Ozi Monsta r3mix) which will be changed to a token song during this week. (so get in and play it if you don’t think you’ll be able to unlock it)
Division 3: CQ Boss
These guys just have me speechless at this stage of the tournament. Last round was a very fun jack-y affair with lots of nice sections to rape your PA with. This round is no easy feat either with some relaxing chiptune coupled with some ‘fun’ 32nd sections. I am sure you guys are up to the challenge that hi19hi19 has set up for you. But if not, at least you made top 8, right?
Division 4: Spaceman
Kommisar brings us into round 6 for our division 4 players with another chip-related song. Not completely out of the ordinary for one of our prolific chip-step artists, but a little different when it is the 3rd out of 4 songs that has held this chip tune theme. Last round division 4 had us on the edge of our seats expecting a AAA or die scenario, but the lone good and boo under our black-flagged scores separated the top 8 from the top 16, some of which will receive token and credit prizes for their top 12 finish. As will D3′s 9th & 10th places, D5′s top 14 and D6′s top 16. None of these prizes will be given out until the end of the tournament.
Division 5: Rock Rock Rock (t+pazolite Remix)
I hope you guys like mini jacks. Wait, i’ll rephrase that. I hope you guys are good at mini jacks, cos this fast speedy hardcore remix from t+pazolite stepped by bmah is going to give you and your fingers a heaped serving of them. Not much else to say aside from look out for the sudden 32nd walls, try to move cleanly through those jump/jack transitions and keep that stamina up.
Division 6: Extratone Pirates (Drunk Optimus Remix)
I don’t even. This is possibly a little too hard for this stage of the tournament, but with 1 good being the cut-off for our top 8, something needs to budge. ‘Something’ being 3 of our top 8 players, but we all know they are strong enough to handle the pressure of these sort of encounters. Nothing much I can say about this chart without my jaw hitting the floor, blinding stream sections, crazy jacks into jumpjacks and then that ending jumpstream… A severe and thoroughly challenging effort from Wayward Vagabond that I can see some of our D6 players having a lot of fun with. Also his 4th chart in this tournament including this rounds tiebreaker.
To weigh in on these songs, drop us a message on the forums in the song discussion thread.
FFR Official Tournament – Round 5!!
…and then there were 16. Or 19 if you are Division 1 where everybody seems to have kicked butt last round. (Edit: 1 more person AAA’d in the last 30mins and made the above statement false.)
This week we whittle our fields down to our coveted top 8 and Vertex Beta vRofl winners (you also get a neat badge on your profile underneath your tokens once the tournament is over). For some of us, this fun-filled journey comes to an end, but for the select 96 of you that remain, the fun is only just beginning…
This weeks songs. Thanks to some lovely timed wireless dropping out and losing access to wordpress for a short while, this is just a run-down of songs.
Division 1: Find a Pet (Candy Mix)
Division 2: 16bitFruit
Division 3: ecstatic ghost party as Nightmare
Division 4: Nous
Division 5: Love & Justice
Division 6: Phidentity Crisis
FFR Official Tournament – Round 4!!
Ah, Round 4. Yes, we’ve finally entered the first of our two middle rounds in the tournament. We’ve managed to forcefully twist off the top layer of our Oreo cookie and have begun to feast on its delicious cream filling. We’ve taken enough licks at our Tootsie Pop to sink our teeth in its moist and chewy fudge-filled innards. Round 4. Sweet, sweet, succulent and sugary Round 4. I have no idea where I’m going with this.
Once again, my condolences to everyone that struggled to do their best but just couldn’t quite make it to this point. But it’s serious time now. We’re cutting to 16 in each division by the end of the week, and for some, reaching that point guarantees at least one prize (a token for your efforts, rather~). The lax introduction to this tourney is over. Time for keyboards to be broken, rageposts to flood the forums, and sleep to be deprived…unless you still manage to AAA your round song in the first twenty minutes or so…in which case, good job (and consider yourself a potential division favorite!)
What’s on the menu this week?
Division 1: Politically Correct Holiday Song
Hmm, this seems appropriate for the middle of summer. Politically Correct Holiday Song is a fun and festive medley by YOSHl that tries its best not to discriminate or accidentally leave anyone out of the Christmas spirit well-wishing. Which I probably just did by only referring to Christmas. Ah well, D1 gets to tap along to this comedic tune full of slow 8th jumpstreams, quicker 16th triples, and a few coloured note sections and grace note accents. Good luck, D1. Happy birthday, Santa.
Division 2: Hearth’s Warming Holiday Cheer
Cool, let’s get a really ironic summer holiday theme going on this round. After giving onlookers an extremely competitive third round closing in at a 3g cutoff (wow), D2 gets their first taste of breakbeats with Hearth’s Warming Holiday Cheer, charted by megamon88. The song difficulty in this division is being ramped up even further with this file — lots of quick 16th jumptrills and rolls, and the song sustains a much more energetic bpm than previous tournament files for D2. Put on another show for this round, please :’)
Division 3: Iced Innocence
Oh man, judging from the title alone, I thought this was gonna be yet ANOTHER holiday-themed song, but thankfully it’s just an Ice Cap Zone remix. Well I shouldn’t say ‘just’ a remix, as this was beautifully done (and was always one of my favorite Sonic Zone themes). Iced Innocence by NemesisTheory, arrows courtesy of Reshiram (with signature white notes intact!) is the file that will determine our D3 top 16. A rather short song with a lucky 777 notecount, Iced Innocence will test D3 with some pretty dense jumpstreaming, as well as the occasional 32nd burst here and there. Last chart before y’all break into some 60+ songs, let’s see if you guys will be able to handle that 
Division 4: Flamingo
Boy did you guys sure have a rough Round 3! Hey, even so, a near-SDG cutoff (at the time of me writing this, it might be even lower now!) is pretty damn impressive. That being said, megamon88’s Flamingo, while being similar in difficulty to The Replicator, tests an entirely different set of skills this round. Hands. Lots of ‘em. Yup, some moderate handstreaming appears to be the main focus this round, along with a few awkward bursts just to make life hard for you guys. Though I do foresee some of you having an easier time with this file compared to last round’s. In any case, this should make for some very intense competition as only half of you will be moving forward after this week~
Division 5: Aletheia
Long song time for D5! About time you guys get your first 2000+ note file hehe. SKG_Scintill and .Gazelle. bring D5 Aletheia, our only collab file of the round. Lots of stuff being tested here, folks. We’ve got bursts of all varieties and colours, lengthy jumpstreaming, and flashy polyrhythms. The song is structured with a few interludes that will give you time to catch your breath between the more ridiculous parts, but it’s best not to get too comfortable even during those sections, as you might end up taking a 48th burst to the face outta nowhere. Bring your A game, gents (and lady).
Division 6: Sleepmix Strikes Back
Oh boy, oh boy! D6 finally gets a bmah chart! And a pretty tough one at that. Sleepmix Strikes Back is an odd little ditty by Yamajet. Sounds to me like porn groove meets K.K. Slider (those very well may be Animal Crossing samples, I’m not certain lol) meets breakcore. Regardless, this should stop the trend of players AAA’ing rather quickly and then sitting around twiddling their thumbs for the rest of the week. 180bpm 16th jumpjacks and 32nd bursts galore await our D6 veterans this round — a worthy file in difficulty for such a crucial point in the tournament. Best of luck to you, my fellow D6 competitors. Starting next round, I’ll probably be wishing you guys horrible mindblocks instead :’)
If you’d like to weigh in on this weeks round picks, feel free to let everyone know your thoughts in the official thread.
FFR Official Tournament – Round 3!!
2 weeks down, 5 or less weeks remaining for the 313 of you that are left, and man what a journey so far. We’ve seen D4 and D6 just decimate their charts and a very harsh cut-off for D5 leaving a lot of hot contenders only a whisker below the elimination line. Unfortunate news for the players that are still in for a chance is that I have got quite the spanner to throw in the works for every division this round. A bit of a jump in difficulty for most divisions, keep in mind that every division will be cut to 32 or less this week, so with this short and sweet intro, let’s see the charts!! (Apologies for D1-4s write-up, OWA was only available for a few minutes tonight and supplied us with the D5/6 low-down)
Division 1: Firebird
Our D1 players might be in for a bit of a shock when they meet with the rolls and jacks that are coming their way with this high-energy chiptune track. Not a lot else to say aside from hang on and feel the burn of the Silvuh-delivered difficulty jump, we’re cutting the field in half so get to mashing those keys and good luck.
Division 2: Calling Mars
Following up with another frequent step artist of this official tournament is DarkZtar and his jumpstream-y addition to round 2. This is a rather mellow track from Kyrn, with it’s short fast bursts of jumpstream + some really eye-catching 32nds in the mix, this will definitely have our D2 players on edge to try and catch themselves a Top 32 spot for Round 4.
Division 3: Baby Still Too Fat
MarioNintendo makes his mark on division 3 this week with a very fun sounding New Wave track. I for one am not looking forward to this as it plays on my biggest weakness *cough*jumpstream*cough*… However, I know a lot of you in this division will be eager to sink your teeth into this chart as it is our divisions first long song. Not much to say aside from a tricky ending and a nasty little surprise wall near the intro.
Division 4: The Replicator
Jacks, 24th jumpstream. If you aren’t a fan of either of these two things, you might want to look away when you load up The Replicator. A very fun chip/swing song with a few troublesome spots to snag our remaining D4 players. I can’t imagine seeing another AAA-fest this week, but those crazy D4 cats might surprise us yet. Great chart Carlos ;D
Division 5: Press Start
I won’t lie, I was damn impressed with how well our D5 players handled last round’s file. With almost half of you advancing to round 3 while snagging a AAA on A FLOWER GARDEN, and the rest with under 3g, you guys have definitely proven what FFR’s soon-to-be gurus are capable of. Unfortunately, YOSHl put on his steel-toed boots this round to have yet another go at your nether regions. Press Start by Acid Paradox is a fun 8-bit song filled with tons of samples alluding to the first Super Mario Bros game. This chart’s full of slow but constant jumpstreaming, with some jumpjacks scattered here and there. Although…hmm, how do I put this in a way other than ‘watch out for the troll walls’? Just be on guard whenever that pesky plumber decides to snag a mushroom or slide down a flagpole. Trust me when I say some of you might hate Mario by the end of this round. Or YOSHl. Or both.
Division 6: Shotgun Surgery
Yes, your suspicions have finally been confirmed. It’s Shotgun Surgery by RedSGShredder this round for our D6 players, a thrash metal collab by Hateandhatred and samurai7694. But seriously, after the lot of you took turns having your way with last round’s chart before throwing her out into the streets without even having the common courtesy to provide her with cab fare, who didn’t see this bump up in difficulty coming? With over 3000 notes and clocking in at over four minutes in length…it’s a bit of a doozy. If you guys manage to get past that intro unscathed (anticipating tons of rage from that section alone), be prepared to deal with some pretty dense jumpstreams, slow jack ragebait, and an intricate guitar solo that’ll definitely have you twisting your fingers around. Finally broke the 80+ barrier guys, let’s see what you’re really made of.
So Good luck everyone, and we’ll see approx. half of you next round!!
FFR Official Tournament – Round Two!!
Welp, it’s been a week. I wish I could say it was a week filled with heated rivalries and tight elimination cutoffs, but I’m sure most of us are aware that first rounds for Official FFR Tournaments tend to have a more chilled and relaxed atmosphere than the rounds to follow. Non-submitters helped to keep elimination barriers relatively low, although some divisions still managed to reach SDG cutoffs, which is even more impressive considering the pretty aggressive first round picks compared to last year. Sadly, we say goodbye to almost 250 of you this week. I’d love to personalize a farewell message for all of you, but due to a combination of both my laziness and my not wanting to stretch this post to ridiculous proportions, I’ll just pick one of you at random. Goodbye hoboasian. I would tell you that you fought valiantly, but it appears that you haven’t been online in the past 20 days. 
To everyone whose name on the dashboard isn’t backed by that bloody shade of death (wow that’s slightly morbid for an arrowsmashing tourney…) – good news! You did enough to make it to Round 2! Being the pessimist that I am, however, I’ll have to offset that with some bad news – you need to do even more work this week if you want to survive until Round 3…
Let’s take a look at this round’s songs, mmmyes?
Division 1: Nocturne
Things are picking up speed quite fast for D1. Nocturne, a piano solo brought to you by stepartist vet Silvuh, will be a bit of a jump in difficulty for our players. The file features some delicate coloured note sections that will definitely test your reading abilities, as well as some slight deviations in bpm to keep you on edge throughout the almost 500 note file. This may be a relaxing file to play for our veterans of the game, but I foresee some serious competition from D1 starting this round.
Division 2: Insomnia (Acid Paradox Remix)
nois-or-e hits up D2 with his first chart of the tourney, Insomnia (Acid Paradox Remix)! Sounds a bit like dubstep to me despite some guy that suggests otherwise twice throughout the song… In any case, D2 gets to tap along to some gentle 16th jumpstream before things get slightly more chaotic. Watch out for those 32nd triples, it’s not hard to rush ahead or fall behind if you lose your focus for a moment. As AAAs might be few and far between, it’ll be interesting to see how our D2 players handle this round. Keep an eye on this division for sure.
Division 3: CS Custom Gun Sounds
Those that enjoyed Infinity last round are in for a treat. Why you might ask? Our D3 players receive yet another Elite Ninja chart this round! CS Custom Gun Sounds might sound very similar to another file already in FFR (I’ll let you guys try and guess which one), but Elite Ninja wasn’t as mean as bluguerilla was with some of his pattern choices (look, I even gave you guys a hint!) The chart is very consistent in its layering, featuring hands where hands are warranted and a plethora of jumps. A few tricky 16th jacks might manage to catch a few of you off-guard in the latter half of the file. All in all, shouldn’t be too problematic, but I have a feeling that difficulty in future rounds for our D3 players might spike very soon…
Division 4: Yellow Leaves
Alright, alright. Addict (Dr. Ozi Monsta r3mix) was a rough Round 1 for you guys. I can almost guarantee you’ll enjoy this file a bit more if you’ve had trouble with those 32nd bursts over the past week. Silvuh strikes twice this round with Yellow Leaves, a very catchy upbeat piano tune with drum and bass accompaniment! The chart is far less aggressive in comparison to Addict, but almost 500 notes longer. There shouldn’t be too many problem areas in this file for our D4 players, but their consistency will definitely be tested. And hey, even if you find yourself in some sort of dire situation later on in the round, struggling to claw your way over that elimination barrier, at least you get to listen to a pretty cool song~
Division 5: A FLOWER GARDEN
$20 says this marks the beginning of what I like to call ‘bmah rage’. Don’t get me wrong, the chart’s fantastic and I love it, but I’m positive some of you D5’ers will think otherwise, if only because it’ll prove tough to score on. Yes, D5 gets their first bmah chart of the tourney with A FLOWER GARDEN. And yes, there are a TON of nasty places to trip up on in this file. Much like a flower garden, this file is extremely colourful, featuring 16th jumpjacks, a ~*~RaiNboW~*~ trill, 32nd jumpstreams, and a sped-up climactic ending. You guys did really well on EuroMorroc, so enjoy your first kick to the balls.
Division 6: Since 1983
Oh man, years ago I used to spend hours raging over the SM edit for this chart (there was this one really awkward 24th stream that I just could NOT hit for the life of me). Thankfully, DarkZtar’s chart isn’t as overlayered, but it’s no walk in the park either. Whereas Spoils demanded both technique and control from our D6 players, speed is being tested here. The chart contains alternating 12th and 16th jumpstreams with a few polyrhythms thrown in occasionally for good measure. The real difficulty, however, comes at the blazing-fast 24th jumpstreaming sections, most notably in the middle of the song during the fiery electric guitar and keyboard solos. Good luck D6, we’ll be reaching even more complex files sooner than you think.
Drop an opinion on this weeks charts in the thread. Don’t forget to take a look where you stand in the official tournament dashboard. Happy keysmashing, guys. Try not to rage too much, the worst is yet to come.
