Preface
Been a while since the last OT, and I've made bounds and strides as a player in the last year, so I hope to prove myself this tournament, aiming for a top 3 finish.

Round 1: Eureka | Score: AAA! (256p, 2att)

Thoughts:
This file is a really fun one to start of the OT, with only some minor diff spikes throughout, but those were able to be cleaned up in 2 attempts and some iso practice to make for a pretty short and sweet grind. Akazu also looks really really fun, so I'm a little sad I wasn't able to make it to g7 this year, but I'll have to see how it plays in the morning when I'm able to push properly.

Have played Akazu since writing that, I was correct, Akazu is really fun! I think I actually would've lived g7 cutoff with the score I got on it (5.4rg iirc) so that's quite funny.


Round 2: Mezzotinto | Score: AAA! (373p, 15att)

Thoughts:
@jacob who hurt you?

Jokes aside, this file was indeed still pretty fun as OT files tend to be, but we're leaving the range of files I can AAA at 1am so that is a bit sad. Put in ~30m of work on file release to get 6.2rg, but after sleeping on it and another ~20m of practice I was able to clean it up to get my second day 1* AAA!

Now that g7 file do be lookin kinda equivable though......................

Round 3: silly-willy-nilly | Score: 1-0-0-1 (417p, ??att)

Thoughts:
Been a minute, time to catch up with this.
So far, silly-willy-nilly has been the most frustrating file to grind out (written as of round 5), as so many random patterns can instantly end your run when pushing for AAA. Still, not a bad file, and a decent showing for myself


Round 4: Clex3 | Score: 14-0-1-1 (701p, ??att)

Thoughts:
Ah yes, the funny one. The "103" we were given. Honestly wasn't that bad all considered, albeit some very very mean patterns throughout, creating large choke points. This is the round where I converted my own skin (whatsnapp) and Sound's skins, and it immediately showed as we were pretty much immediately hoisted to #2 and #1, respectively

Round 5: Yuushitessen | Score: 28-2-5-7 (809p, 11att)

Thoughts:
This file is genuinely a ton of fun, as the bursts are extremely fun and satisfying to hit, with some really interesting pattern to create an extremely stamina intensive file. Decently happy with my score atm but may come back to push to 20-30rg since I genuinely am enjoying this file for now.

Round 6: Diabolic Enemy | Score: 12-0-4-4 (691p, 14att)

Thoughts:
Easier than Yuushitessen kappa

Jokes aside, probably the file that played the most into my skillset during the tournament, being primarily semidense 260bpm JS and 130 CJ

Was able to get a really good score of 22 raw, there's no way anyone beats tha- why is the score color purple and not gray

Round 7: Isometry 1.2x | Score: 919-44-218-64 (1219p, 1att)

Thoughts:
chat i dont think they liked us tying
unfortunately i have a skill issue when it comes to vibro/mashing so this was unwinnable for me, BUT MY BOY SOUND WON HIS FIRST OT LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Round 1: Necroxus
(AAA) - Took a fair amount of attempts, but eventually got the AAA after 2 blackflags. Pretty fun file with the main difficulty (for me) coming in bursty streams.

Round 2: parallel skydive
(AAA) - I'm gonna be honest, I really dislike the second half of this file. In my opinion, it's disproportionately hard and felt like hell to grind out. I also don't really agree with this being placed at 83, I think it could be bumped up to upwards of 85-87. That being said, no hate to zeta, and congrats on a first file in ffr!

Edit after AAAing: honestly I have no idea why I was so pissy when I woke up lmao, the file's honestly fine, and really consistent (albeit learny). AAA'd after only 1 bf.

Round 3: Dancecore Moldovenesc
(6-0-0-0)
While at first I really disliked the intro and paused with 1.7k rg, I came back to it yesterday, and after playing it with rates and Mirror (thanks tosh for pointing it out, genuinely saved my ass), I did start building consistency, and moreso, an appreciation for the file. Actually really fun to grind through, though again, could be bumped up a difficulty or two due to how aggressive and awkward the 24th bursts are. Solid song too. Probably not going to grind it out more, as I was simply going for a sdg.

Round 4: Swamp Thing v2
(BLACKFLAG. WUT)
(previous pb: 2-0-0-1)
WHAT THE FUCK HOW DID I JUST DO THAT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
That being said, this is honestly a great file from wiosna/april, albeit very far from the norm from them. Honestly a really fun jack/burst(? not even sure how to classify it at this point lmao) file, and I honestly don't understand the negative takes towards it. Became a lot easier with monochromatic colors (I used all white notes to be specific). Probably not gonna be able to improve this further, but regardless, I had a lot of fun playing this!

Edit on Blackflag.
what

Round 5: innocent revolver
(4-0-1-3)
holyfuckingshit that's my first 90 equiv. ok.
that aside, pretty aggressive bmah jack file. the long jack definitely killed some runs but eh. good file

Round 6: Sinfonia Regalis
(I don't remember what i got in tournament, but my pb is 7-0-5-3)
This is where the tournament gets to hard for me lol
got elimmed this round, so time for piss zombi- I mean lemonade swim meet :D

Round 7: Scualee
(0-0-1-1)
I'm seeing a lot of jack intensive files in this tournament right now, and honestly I'm doing pretty well on them, so that's nice. Currently #1 in d6 lemonade!

Round 8: We Own The Night [Oni]
(3-0-0-0)
And as I say that, the next file is a speed file lmao. I developed some pretty serious mindblock on the first speed section after the first day, being unable to get through it with even an SDG. However, I put in one attempt (i am not kidding, no restarts) with mirror, and got this score out. Very happy with it, ending up second in d6 lemonade, after XJ-9.

Conclusion:
Honestly this tournament was a lot of fun, and I am very happy with how I preformed. Coming into the tournament, my goal was to get top 16, with even that being a stretch. However, due to the constant skill boosting during the tournament, I was able to finish a lot higher than I expected, ending up at 8th! In short, this was a really fun tournament, and I can't wait till next year!