StepCon 2023

[suicidaln00b]

got 5 votes, not bad

would've voted ptc1 if i wasn't in class A, very based maximal get-fucked interpretation of the song

ptc 4 kinda funney since it was pretty similar to my sub in certain spots

not surprised ptc7 is by jh93284023980323827392384092384 since it's a more reserved take, would've been my vote if not for my raging hardon for ptc1

sorry was too lazy to watch the other classes so i didnt vote for shit anyway glhf to the weiners in the final stepoff!

[Elite Ninja]

I'll take Strangeprogram v0, Secret Area (Between My Legs), and The Worst Goku Rap for my token picks please and thank you! All tokens + skill tokens achieved with that yay \o/

Good luck to everyone in finals o7 (I'll certainly need it against you guys as this is way out of my comfort zone x_x)

[WirryWoo]

Thanks for the positive reviews and the votes! I agree with all of the constructive criticisms received and will be editing my file prior to submitting it to FFR. I would like:

Crawling From Hell
Taunfolk
Secret Area (Between My Legs)

I took a listen at the Final Stepoff song and it's a fucking bop haha. Looking forward to this round even though I'm sure jh will take this as this song is in his alleyway imo.

[samurai7694]

Congrats to all!

I took a bit of a risk in my submission, favoring a very "old-school" approach and choosing not to include any jacks which made the chart feel light (probably a bit too light?).

Still, I am glad I gave this a shot amidst a very very busy schedule on my end.

[gold stinger]

Originally Posted by samurai7694

Congrats to all!

I took a bit of a risk in my submission, favoring a very "old-school" approach and choosing not to include any jacks which made the chart feel light (probably a bit too light?).

Still, I am glad I gave this a shot amidst a very very busy schedule on my end.

Your submission was actually very formidable. I can say while watching votes come in throughout the week, you were in 2nd at one point in the votes.

[storn42]

For my tokens i'll take:
Taunfolk
Secret Area (Between My Legs)
Recursive Call

This song is going to be a super challenging one for me to chart. I hope i'll be able to make something good.

[Zoobin4]

Thanks so much to anyone who voted for me, super happy with getting 3rd- especially considering that a lot of people don't like dumps at all, glad there were some people who enjoyed my chart.

For anyone curious I'll write my ordering and ratings for each group below, with the ones I voted for (or would have voted for) in bold:
[A] - 6 & 7, 4, 5, 3, 2, 1
[A/10] - forgot to write down my ratings oops

[B] - 2, 6, 4, 1, 7, 5, 3
[B/10] - 9.5, 9.4, 9.1, 8.5, 8.4, 8, 7

{C} - 6, 3 (-aka me) & 5, 1 & 2, 4, 7
{C/10} - 8.9, 8.75 & 8.7, 8.6 & 8.6, 8.5, 8.4

[D] - 1, 4 & 5, 6, 3, 2
[D/10] - 9.2, 9.05 & 9, 8.9, 7.8, 3

[E] - 8, 3, 4, 2 & 5, 1 & 6, 7
[E/10] - 9.3, 8.8, 8.4, 8.1 & 8.1, 8 & 8, 7.7

Overall the competition for this was extremely intense, a huge congratulations to the winners of each class.


And for group C specifically, here are some more detailed thoughts on each chart (including my own, with me attempting to look at it in an unbiassed way)

{C6} - A little rough on the first drop (the one after the first buildup), with the layering not quite so good, but the main drop absolutely carried this chart with an extremely fun and accurate vocal dump. If I were to rate that section alone it would get something like a 9.7, there are a couple minor inconsistencies in which sounds are determined to be 'dumpable', and probably a couple other nit-picks, but other than that I felt it was an almost perfect representation of that section of the song.

{C3} - A quite creative dump chart that for the most part flows very well, but there were some areas (especially in the intro and first drop) where the start and end points (or speed) of the dumps corresponding to the vocals didn't quite line up, and left you feeling a bit awkward. This happens at a fair few points throughout the chart.
At the start of the first main drop the initial feeling was a bit lacking, but it was quickly connected into some more interesting dump patterns and rhythms. Maybe should have just replaced the first burst of that drop with something more interesting.
Overall it needs a bit more polish, and is a bit lacking in style consistency at times, but is a solid attempt at a dump chart.

{C5} - A extremely solid pick overall, probably the best constructed chart in terms of consistency and layering choices. There were a few points where I disagree with the layering choices, but ultimately they didn't affect the enjoyability too much. The main reason this isn't rated higher is because the chart itself is quite boring due to the fact that it doesn't express changes in vocals in any way- e.g. a vocal slide/pitch bend, vibrato, or just single held pitch- were all charted the exact same way, which lost a ton of the interesting parts of the song

{C1} - A solid pick that incorporated mainly the instrumentals, with vocals layered as jumps on top where relevant. Overall this pick was very similar to C5, the main differences being that the main drop was far more jacky.
The choices I disagreed with here were more egregious in my opinion though, like some of the jacks slightly overextended their welcome with anchors, or switching between gluts and jumptrills in the snare buildup sections, and there wasn't much creative flair, so it ended up being rated slightly lower than C5.

{C2} - Very fun usage of dumps and minijacks in the main drop section. The problem with this chart is some of the choices in everything before the main drop.
For the intro/buildup, it felt like the charter was deathly afraid of minijacks, and wanted to make the chart as easy as possible, then in the first drop you get jumpscared with two vocal dump minitrills with minijacks at the end of them- two instances of a vocal dump in that entire section- it feels so weird to play only because oh how sparsely the vocal dump aspect was used, it would have been much better to fully commit either way.
Then in the buildup to the main drop, we are greeted with not the most accurate vocal dump, with patterns that are not friendly to play- then we switch to instrumental charting- then back to vocal dump. Again, it would have been better to fully commit to one way, switching back and forth makes the layering very confusing for the player.
The saving grace of this chart is the insanely fun main drop section (which is how I think C7 should have charted it).

{C4} - Started off very strong, similar to C5 but with a slightly more creative patterning choice for the instrumentals. Unfortunately the chart lost its flow a little bit with the dicksynced vocals after the first drop, which I felt were not timed correctly. Then later on in the main drop, it suffered the same problems as mentioned above in C5.
Hard to describe, but overall I just felt the chart became less consistent/polished over time.

{C7} - The minijacks in the main drop worked extremely well, along with the combination of small dumpy bursts- it felt great to play- but the anchors/longjacks almost always just felt unjustified and unnecessary to me. I would've given a much higher score if they had been toned down.
The layering/patterning of the intro/buildup also felt oversimplified for no good reason.

[MarioNintendo]

Song is dope. Looking forward to see what remaining contestants come up with!

[XelNya]

I'm a little disappointed with how I did, but eh. I did better than I expected by a long shot.

A few things I wanna toss out there,

1. My file would make a lot more sense if you could skim it with the waveform, the 96ths aren't for "style" or to make it cool, that's actually how they are. It would be really cool if there was a way to overlay the preview with the wave form for the next iteration of this if there is one.

2. The intro, monkeys, wasn't meant to be synced completely. It's a basic structure with dump layered into it. Literally the rest of the file should have put that in perspective for you. It's a foreshadowing to the hold note "dumping" so the player isn't thrown off by it later. I could agree that maybe I missed the mark in execution, which is kind of obvious, but still. I don't know why you'd phrase it that way. Sorry if this comes off as harsh, but you're a judge, so I actually expect someone like you to have caught that.

3. jacob, I like your comments, but I will toss out that I don't layer traditionally, so while I accept the critique of course, you aren't wrong, it's also an indication that the execution was too sloppy, thank you.

Comments aside, I got something stylistically out of it, so thank you all regardless.

[RenaPlatinak2]

not bad, and the first time I participate in the stepcon : )

[gold stinger]

Just providing a short little bump for those whom are participating still in the Final StepOff (as well as those waiting for the next voting period,) that submissions for the Final StepOff and the StepCon 2023 batch will be closing in under 2 days from now.

The absolute final time to submit your version of the song and fixes will be 11:59pm SERVER TIME on Saturday, November 4th. At that time, public voting will open once again for everyone in the same fashion as the first round of voting.

[Elite Ninja]

I'm both excited and nervous as heck

[storn42]

Excited to see what everyone has come up with. The wait is killing me.

[WirryWoo]

Submitted. Good luck to all of the finalists (I'm definitely going to need it) and have fun with the charts community.

[gold stinger]

The Second Public Voting Period has Begun!

During this time, the public abroad, can vote for songs submitted for Final StepOff of StepCon 2023. No further submissions for the event will be accepted at this time. You can re-visit the Google Form link in the future to change your votes (until the end of the Public Voting period), and you can vote for multiple options across all Classes (Pick any & all that you like!).

You may fill out the form at https://forms.gle/ZdzdLEGd8YDdLbwR6 to submit your votes.

Please be advised, participants CANNOT vote for their own Class. Votes for Final StepOff will not count for participants. In the unique case that a finalist has not submitted for Final StepOff, they are allowed to participate in voting.

https://www.flashflashrevolution.com/batch_submission/engine/r3.stepcon2023.xml
If you navigate to your 'Options' in your FFR Engine, navigate to 'Miscellaneous' settings and click the drop-down for 'Engine Playlist', you should see this at the bottom of the list:



You will get this pop-up:



If you Copy the above XML URL and Paste it there, and click 'Add Engine', you should be able to view/play/observe songs from StepCon 2023. If you do not want to play the song, you may preview the song by right-clicking the song of choice in the song selection menu and selecting 'Play Chart Preview' in the right click menu.

Everyone will have until the end of Saturday, November 11th, 11:59PM SERVER TIME to complete voting and submit their forms at the above google link.

Furthermore, discussion is allowed in-thread during voting. But please do not deliberately attempt to sway votes/vote brigade particular submissions, and treat your fellow Stepauthors with respect. People of all skill levels participate within this event, and there is going to be good/bad matchups for people's skills and preferred genres. Keep it civil and respectful. There's also the #events channel in FFR's Official Discord for discussing the event as well!

[ositzxz369]

1 was solid, though not as crazy with the minijacks/wubs like some of the other entries. 2 had some sussy three-16ths jacks (need to see in AV if justified). 3 had some nasty 32nd bursts. 4 had one nasty 32nd triplet burst and some of the ascents were stepped as descents, but I did like the different wubs having different colors. 5 was tamer than 1; not very crazy; easiest entry of the bunch.

[gold stinger]

YouTube previews are up!

[xXOpkillerXx]

Got some Very brief notes for the submissions. Went through each chart about 3 times at least to not be too biased by the order they're presented.

1:
This chart is pretty tame and has good execution throughout. Bit of an odd spike with the hands and polys at the end given how easy the drops (breakcore and dubstep) were, making the latter much less memorable. Could've had more originality, like patterning or color theory; as is nothing really stands out much.

2:
Cool approach with the higher difficulty. The patterning and difficulty curve are sound for most sections locally, but as a whole it's a bit hard to justify; there are bursty/minijack-y sections where the music isnt at its peak intensity yet those sections are the hardest to play. Also while the color trills are neat, the poly they create with the 8ths and 4ths are a bit jank. Pretty fun dubstep-y drop though that was one of the more enjoyable versions of that section.

3:
Pretty clean overall. There could have been more abstraction than 24ths and 16ths in the dubstep part to really make it pop, because it's probably the most underwhelming section of the chart. Handstream at the end is a bit of a difficulty bump too and the layering could be toned down just a bit (or would be fine if the dubstep part was harder), but at least it's relatively friendly patterning.

4:
This one hits a sweet spot in terms of difficulty management; the js/hs, breakcore and dubstep all have their own interesting approach without being underwhelming or too spiky. The color theory in the first half (white notes) is a bit hard to follow because it's not distinct enough of a sound with everything going on in that section. The handstream layering is also a bit weird in the second half because there are hands going to sounds much softer than others.

5:
Easiest approach, pretty friendly to play. A couple of sections lack pattern diversity and are mostly just rolls and/or split rolls. The handstream at the end is a bit too hard for the rest of the chart though.


Overall, I think all submissions are pretty strong and enjoyable to play. There isn't any specific chart that nails everything, nor is there a chart that messes up lots of sections. For the most part it was often a tradeoff between which section was charted "better" imo; some had better breakcore, some had better dubstep, and some had better js/hs. I can see this finale getting diverse votes for sure. I picked one in particular which I believe would be the most memorable and wouldn't require many structural fixes to get ingame. Congrats to everyone for submitting a chart, y'all did well. Good luck!

[gold stinger]

This is going to be a very interesting round imo because my 2 cents is that everyone at least did one thing in their file that stood out extremely well amongst everyone else whom submitted. Like for example, 'number 4' has imo the best representation of the dubstep section, 'number 1' has the best representation of the breakcore section, and 'number 5' has the best intro sections. Just to list a few examples. I also liked the white-note color theory jumps in the intro from one submission but I forget if it's one of the ones that I listed.

The absolute perfect file to me would be a melting pot of all 5 and their best qualities.

[WirryWoo]

Originally Posted by gold stinger

This is going to be a very interesting round imo because my 2 cents is that everyone at least did one thing in their file that stood out extremely well amongst everyone else whom submitted. Like for example, 'number 4' has imo the best representation of the dubstep section, 'number 1' has the best representation of the breakcore section, and 'number 5' has the best intro sections. Just to list a few examples. I also liked the white-note color theory jumps in the intro from one submission but I forget if it's one of the ones that I listed.

The absolute perfect file to me would be a melting pot of all 5 and their best qualities.

So funny because I was actually thinking about this the other day. If community and winners agree, can the file be released as a “collab” between “first place ties”? A lot of the submitted charts have their own respective qualities and it would be a shame to miss out on some of them haha.