Tournament Map-Pools; Tips for Making Solid Map-Pools

by Smoothie World

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I.) Introduction

Hello,

        As of late, it has been apparent in the tournament scene that some recent map-pools have been poorly constructed and heavily sided towards a specific style of mapping or a certain aspect of playing such as streaming, aim, consistency, or most common recently, gimmick. Of course, no map-pool is going to sit well with every player in the tournament, and there will be picks that some players will find questionable; it is very healthy to include some ‘edgy’ picks in a tournament, but only when they are used sparingly. When an entire pool or most of a pool is drowned out with maps that are extremely gimmicky, the tournament becomes a contest of who can play such-and-such map the best as opposed to a test of consistency and skill, which is what most players want in a tournament. If your tournament is geared towards aim or streams or gimmicky maps, then so be it. However, unless that is the theme or one of the aims for a specific tournament, a map-pool should be well-rounded, covering all skills that make up the game and not just a minority of maps to ensure maximum fairness for all players.

II.) Categories of Mapping

        In the game, 99.9% of maps fall under a certain category, each one containing a different style of mapping, and each testing a different aspect of a player’s skill. The most broad categories are as follows:

Consistency - These are long maps that generally keep even spacing and difficulty throughout the map. Maps that fall under this category test a player’s ability to focus and keep their nerves under control. Generally, in a map-pool, these maps are the easiest, but require the player to maintain their skill for a long period of time, which can be challenging in a tournament setting.

Aim - Maps falling under this category have the largest spacing for the most part, and as a result, have a star rating slightly larger than the rest of the maps despite being around a similar skill level due to how the star system works. Players that play these in tournaments need to have strong control on their cursor movement in sections that have larger spacing.

Stream - Stream maps are regarded by the majority of the community as maps that consist of frequent patterns of circles that are in a line or curve one after the other in a ¼ beat snap divisor. Maps that fall under this category will test a player’s stamina and ability to control their cursor and finger movement in streams.

Speed - Maps that reside in this category are songs with a significantly higher BPM than the other picks in the pool. As a result, they often have lower spacing, but the sheer speed of them puts them at a skill level similar to other maps accompanying them in the pool. Players will be required to have their cursor movement under control in fast patterns, in addition to having strong alternating or single-tapping skills.

Technical - These are maps that consist of complex patterns and rhythms, usually with many sliders and frequent shifts in flow. Players need to have good cursor control as well as solid reading ability in certain scenarios to perform well on maps falling under this category.

Gimmick - Maps that don’t fall into the other categories most often fall here. These are maps that have all kinds of wonky rhythm and challenging-to-read patterns, or low approach rate, or any other gimmick not normally seen in a large chunk of maps. As with technical, players need to have solid reading ability as well as cursor control, and in some cases, finger control, as ⅓ and ⅙ rhythms can be common in certain maps.

Of course, these categories have subcategories, but I will get into that later.

        A well-balanced pool should utilize each of these categories of maps as equally as possible to avoid a major bias towards a specific aspect of playing. With categories of maps come players that excel at specific aspects of the game. Without naming anybody in particular, you should already be aware that no two players are the same and that everybody has differing strengths and weaknesses. In a tournament, however, both strengths and weaknesses should be put to the test as opposed to only one to make it the most likely for the truly better player to advance. When you have a lopsided pool with two very different players, the results begin to skew because one player does not have equal opportunities as the other does. While one player will usually be more skilled than the other, both players should have the opportunity to pick what they excel at the most and should not be forced to play a pool biased towards the other player. Osu! Is an incredibly diverse game; players have so much freedom to play such a variety of maps, and map pools should be a reflection of this.

III.) Simple Template for a Balanced Pool

        Personally, when I make a map-pool, I use the following template to ensure that I am not making an unbalanced pool and to easily keep track of the aspects of the game that it covers:

NoMod

Well-Rounded - This encompasses maps that have a mixture of many elements of the game while maintaining a consistent level of difficulty throughout the song.

Aim - This includes maps heavily favoring players that are skilled at jumps with little streams or technical rhythm involved. Generally, this map should have the largest star difficulty of the NoMod pool due to how the formula works, but of course, nothing is set in stone, and every pool is different.

Streams- These are maps that are stamina intensive with little aim effort in comparison to the rest of the pool. I already explained what streams are defined as.

Speed - These are maps that favor players with strong alternate ability and players with the ability to single-tap very high BPM. I already explained what makes a map fall under this category.

Technical - This includes the points that I mentioned before.

Gimmick - This includes the points that I mentioned before.

Hidden

Well-Rounded - This encompasses maps that have a mixture of many elements of the game while maintaining a consistent level of difficulty throughout the song.

Streams - These are maps that are stamina intensive with little aim effort in comparison to the rest of the pool. I already explained what streams are defined as.

Technical OR AR8 - For technical, this includes the points that I mentioned before. In certain pools, this will transform to an AR8 pick, which is usually an old style map that many new players may struggle with. Later in the tournament, these two will be individual categories.

Hard Rock

Well-Rounded - This encompasses maps that have a mixture of many elements of the game while maintaining a consistent level of difficulty throughout the song.

Rhythm - These are maps that challenge a player’s ability to maintain higher accuracy, which is a vital aspect when playing Hard Rock due to the increased OD.

Technical OR CS6.5 - For technical, this includes the points that I mentioned before. In certain pools, this will transform to an CS6.5 pick, which challenges a player’s ability to aim low CS, which is a big challenge in many Hard Rock maps. Later in the tournament, these two will be individual categories.

DoubleTime

Well-Rounded - This encompasses maps that have a mixture of many elements of the game while maintaining a consistent level of difficulty throughout the song. Later in the tournament, these picks will become AR 10.3 to challenge the player’s reading ability in higher approach rate since later on, these rounded picks basically become a second NoMod pool without 10.3.

High BPM - These are maps that challenge a player’s ability to maintain combo and accuracy during faster songs, which is a big part of DoubleTime.

Rhythm - This includes the points that I mentioned before. In DoubleTime especially, this will challenge a player’s finger control.

Something to note for DoubleTime is that it is not meant to be simply a second NoMod pool. Make the picks unique and make them fast, since that is what makes a DoubleTime pool stay in accordance with the name itself.

FreeMod

FreeMod is a weird one. Many times, I do this pool last and pick based on genres of music or song lengths I feel the pool lacks while staying in line with the rest of the pool. Try to keep the skills that they cover balanced. Later into tournaments, I personally like to add an AR8 CS5 map to the pool. This adds a lot of strategy when it comes to either forcing teammates or yourself to play AR8 with Hidden or CS6.5 with Hard Rock.

Tiebreaker

For the final show, pick something that covers as many of the aspects of mapping covered as possible to have the best chance of the better player winning. Do NOT pick a map that is entirely streams, entirely jumps, or has an intense gimmick, since the tiebreaker is supposed to be as fair as possible to all types of players.

My biggest tip to you is to be creative. Think outside of the box. I don’t want to scare you out of taking risks and challenging the players. Only when every single pick is up the wall does it become unbalanced and unfair towards certain players. Also, don’t be afraid to have some variety with the difficulty of certain picks. Throw some curveballs in the pool that are either significantly higher or lower than the rest of the pool as this adds strategy to the game when it comes to picks and bans. Have fun with it, but don’t go overboard.

IV.) Analyzing Popular Map-pools for High Level Tournaments

In this section, I am going to attempt to analyze certain pools and explain the rights and wrongs of them in the most unbiased way possible. I’ll begin with one of my own pools from Dual Cup:

Strengths:

• The aspects that the pool cover are well-rounded. There are fast maps, stream maps, rounded maps, and a few gimmick picks without going overboard.
• The pool encompasses a multitude of BPMs and genres of music while not repeating the same mapper twice, ensuring many styles of mapping.

        Weaknesses:

• The lengths of the songs are not balanced. The longest map in the Hidden pool is 2:26, which leaves the Hidden pool with a lack of a map that tests the player's’ consistency.
• The NoMod pool favors players that play higher BPM. The lowest BPM is 185 which is still quite high to be the absolute lowest. More maps here are needed that test the player’s finger control. As a player, I am inclined to pick maps that suit my interests for playing simply because I naturally enjoy them less. For me, I enjoy high BPM maps, and while I tried to not be biased in the selection of this pool, I did show signs of bias in this pool. It is very important to have more than one map-pool selector to avoid something like that happening, and make sure that the selectors cover two different aspects of playing.

I have learned from my mistakes and will take these things into account in my future mappools. Next, I will explain the strengths and weaknesses behind the recent controversial Quarterfinals pool for OWC 2016:

Strengths:

• The Hard Rock pool and DoubleTime pools are a good test of two important aspects of the mods, especially in Score v2- rhythm and accuracy.
• Taking risks is a good thing, and the selectors showed they are not afraid to be creative. Night of Knights is an old map, yes, but it is a very strategical pick because of accuracy issues with HR and readability issues with HD with many stacks. Very smart on their part.

        Weaknesses:

• The NoMod pool consists of a Technical map, a Speed (arguably Technical) map, an Aim (again, arguably technical/gimmick) map, another Technical map, another Aim map, and another Technical map. Factually, this pool lacks a stream-heavy map and a map with higher AR as well as a balanced, well-rounded map. It also lacks a map with a gimmick that makes the match exciting for viewers, but Scarlet Rose basically covers that just because of the infamy of the name. This could be solved by replacing Illumascape with a more well-rounded and comfortable and “safe” albeit difficult map.
• The map selectors failed to take into account that the first Hidden map is HP9, which means literally two misses lead to a fail which is frustrating for the player and anticlimactic to watch as a viewer.
• rog-unlimitation is better suited to the NoMod pool to fill the gap of a stream oriented map. Additionally, the fact that it is AR10 and CS3 makes it barely punishing to pick a mod, which defeats the purpose of FreeMod.
• The tiebreaker is not a fair pick. It is supposed to be the ultimate decider of a match. Both teams fought hard and fought equally to get to it, and it is unfair to have the tiebreaker lean so heavily in favor of players with finger control and low AR abilities. Picture a fast aim player and a stable stream player. Both players fight hard and make it to tiebreaker, winning on their own picks. Do you really think it’s fair that the stable stream player has such a better chance of winning? Before you say “well then, learn low BPM streams,” you need to understand that that’s not a fair statement at all. The tiebreaker again should be a fair test of the widest variety of the aspects of the game as possible, and this is about as far from that as possible.
• The map-pool in general, with the exception of Scarlet Rose, lacks energy that makes the audience hyped up and watch more. It also lacks a variety of genres of music. Out of the 5 modern maps, by the way, 3 are by the map-pool selectors, which raises some more flags amidst the already popular accusations of bias.
• Scarlet Rose has multiple unsnapped patterns i.e. this stuff: https://smoothieworld.s-ul.eu/RVSplJyN No way in hell this should fly in the biggest tournament of the year...

Overall, I feel the pool has many dominating issues. When almost every pick has a “wow” factor to it, the “wow” factor becomes increasingly watered down. The pool lacks normal maps that test a player’s consistency and well-rounded ability with the game. The selectors are in the right direction, and I respect the fact that they are able to take risks, but I feel the team would be stronger if it included a “new generation” experienced player to voice their opinion. I hope they don’t completely shut out my suggestions and take them into account when forming future pools.

I plan on doing more of these in the near future.

V.) Conclusion

        I hope that this has positively impacted your map selecting abilities in one way or another, or at least opened your eyes to the science that goes behind the selection. If you have any suggestions or thoughts, let me know and I promise not to be close minded. Thank you for your time and best of luck.