Greater proximity, greater force.

Cold winter winds
Drive us to our hearth at home
Gather family

To anyone and everyone who is reading this, may you be safe and merry in this winter. Happy holidays. :D

Sorry I haven't been on FFR for a while, everyone. I've just been caught up in osu! for some time now, and I'm quite enjoying it.

I'm doing all I can to improve; if anyone would like to play osu! with me, go ahead and ask me. I'd be glad to have some friends on the site.

So here I reside, in this forsaken dome
The voices outside but faint whispers
As is my voice to all of them
I press against the dome, asking for them
All I receive is a minute response

Through their jovial tones, I see their care
And yet, they still fail to understand it
My voice remains locked away from the outer world
In time, the voices outside merely lose interest
Those voices walk away, never to be heard again

The greatest rarity is the voice that remains
It listens to me, and I to it
I can understand the world outside through it
And it can understand my entrapment
But still, the voice cannot shatter the dome

Inside the dome, the only true voice is mine
A rumbling echo, a reminder of my sole torment
Mine is the voice that reached outside the glass
Reached out into the unknown black, searching
Always grasping one, but always having one slip away

My lament, eternal in the world, continues on
The potent shouts of voices turn to silence
Though interrupted, my isolation shall remain
My one solace is to remember those sweet voices
Before I am consumed by the dome once more

So here I lay, remaining inside this dome
My voice, my soul, my body, my mind
All is locked away within this condemning sphere
My desire is singular: For the dome to shatter
So that I may speak with friends once more

Year: 2013, 9th Official.
First tournament participation, D3.

1st round: Reading for Days. Difficulty: 42. Song by The Living Tombstone, stepfile by Xiz.

Attempt one: 4-0-0-0. Not bad, but with so many AAA's around, I'm going to need to do better.
(A few resets later)
Attempt five: AAA achieved.

This introductory song says to me that the songs in the tournament are not going to be as difficult as I originally thought. Maybe things will change in the future rounds. I'll just have to wait for now. Good hunting to everyone else. :)



2nd round: Exogenesis. Difficulty: 51. Song by Rogue, stepfile by Xiz.

Attempt one: The first real run was met with my hands shaking for no reason and eventual lag. So, errors that shouldn't have happened did. Those transitions into the minijacks and minor jumpstreams could prove troublesome, but after some practice, this won't be so bad a song.

Attempt two: 11-0-0-0. Acceptable for a full first run, but this will definitely see improvement.

Attempt three: 4-0-0-1. That's much better; I'm getting used to the song's jacks and jump patterns. I'm considering going for the AAA by now.

Attempt four: 2-0-0-0. This song is very well done; people should look to this for training jump timing.

Attempt five: 1-0-0-0. I HAD IT. Then my tension got me a good on the last few minijacks. I'm fairly sure that I'll be safe with a blackflag. I'm going to keep trying for the AAA, but now it feels like I can't get back to even blackflag status. Well, the future shall tell...

(Insert many resets here)

Attempt ???: Well, this isn't boding well. I've gotten the blackflag and now cannot get anywhere near 1 good. I just gave a huge number of attempts, with the best being 3-0-0-1. I may keep trying, but... (Isolation start: 1, Isolation notes: 203.)



Round 3: Aishiteru Yo Ne. Difficulty: 57. Song by Virtual Riot featuring Miss Neko, stepfile by Razor.

Attempt one: 36-1-0-5. YIKES. Inconstant rhythms are becoming a theme here. There are ridiculous amounts of varied, difficult-to-time moments that require insane amounts of preparation to hit well. I'm going to playing this file for a while. 0_0 (P.S.: This was the first full run, completed after 3 or 4 resets because I disliked how runs were going.)

(I hate you, Norton. I get a decent run going, and then you bomb my screen with a popup and block my view. -.-)

Attempt two: 31-1-0-1. Slightly better, but there's still much to improve on.

(Argh, I'm having a terrible day today, FFR-wise. I'll have to try again tomorrow. :/)

Attempt three: 25-0-0-4. At this point, I realized that I had a major skilldrop overall. I'm going to need to put in serious effort to improve my play, and quickly...

Attempt four: 14-0-0-2. This run was an absolute RELIEF to see. It seems a couple days of Stepmania 5 was enough to remedy some of my problems. I feel confident that this run will get me through to round 4. I may give another run if my position on the leaderboard suddenly drops.


Round 4: Nintendon't. Difficulty: 59. Song by Mayhem, stepfile by qqwref.

Attempt one: 16-0-0-0. A CONSISTENTLY PACED FILE, GODSEND. A satisfying song, and a fair first run. I'm looking forward to my next attempts on this one. :)

Attempt two: 11-0-0-1. Loving the progress. This should've been an SDG, except I made a silly good on a jump. Oh well, things happen. :P

Attempt three: 9-0-0-0. A SDG this quickly? This may be a viable AAA song, if I can stop getting goods on the jumpstream... 4 of the goods came from it alone. :/

Attempt four: 7-0-0-0. Four foolish goods right on the ending portion. -.-

Attempt five: 4-0-0-0. Getting better... :)

(Isolation start 248, isolation notes 159. Sigh...)



Round 5: ORIENTAL SEA!!!. Difficulty: 64. Song by Shigusa ma, stepfile by bmah.

(Now things are getting serious.)

Attempt one: 22-1-0-3. Not bad for a first run, though I did slip on one jumpstream. This song has a LOT of nasty surprises in store, and it's going to take some practice to nail them.

(SERIOUSLY COMPUTER. STOP LAGGING AT COMPLETE RANDOM FOR NO REASON. YOU'RE NOT HELPING THINGS.)

Attempt two: Argh, I've done slightly worse...

(I'm right at the border of the elimination split. This round's going to be a struggle to survive.)

Attempt three: 18-1-1-3. This only came after a multitude of attempts, and I'm frightened because of that. I need to practice that huge 32nd stream right before the end...

(Isolation start: 1128. Play until end.)

(Two hours until the round ends, and I've been pushed to 9th place. However, I won't die without a fight.)

Attempt four: 16-1-0-5. My heart is beating VERY rapidly after that. I'm back to 8th...I now wonder if I should further my position.

I live.

(Reminder: at this point, only runs that improve my score are posted here)

Round 6: Sonic the Hedgehog (Dubstep). Difficulty: 68. Song by Boyinaband featuring NoneLikeJoshua, stepfile by TC_Halogen.

Attempt one: 43-0-4-2. These jacks are going to murder me.

Attempt two: 33-1-3-2. The jacks are the only reason I'm making misses.

Attempt three: 18-0-3-2. WOW, did I eliminate a lot of goods. Those three jacks are still causing plenty of trouble, however.

Attempt four: 19-0-1-1. Well, I sped up a bit on the jacks, but not enough. The irritating part was noticing that 10 of the goods came from messing up timing on one jack. :/

Attempt five: 30-0-0-0. Not an improvement, but this run tells me I CAN FC this, cleanly. I've got faith in myself now. Time for the great push forward.

Attempt six: 19-0-0-1. No matter the pace, it's progression.

Well, here, I shall stop. I've played this song enough. I'm satisfied with what I've done in the tournament.




This first tournament spoke measures about the ability of the FFR Community as well as a note on my progression. I now have the ideas I need to advance further along in my performance; to the rest of you, I wish you the best of luck in the final rounds.

Final results:
Round 1: AAA
Round 2: 1-0-0-0
Round 3: 14-0-0-2
Round 4: 4-0-0-0
Round 5: 16-1-0-5
Round 6: 19-0-0-1. Eliminated in 7th place.

Here's to the next tournament. :D