EDIT: NOT BADMAN'S TOURNEY - PSYCHOANGELS NOSTALGIA TOURNEY
Badman was the person running against me :P
Here comes a long post too:
Found this game around 2006 - didn't make a graph for that timeframe as my gaming times were tentative at best/frustration with FFR.
Here's a confession people may or may not know - I had two other accounts before this - both which I used an FFR trainer on because I wanted to get to the top of the leaderboards. After I was quickly punished for my actions, I took a small break and created this account with the sole intention of become one of the best players, legitimately as well. In the winter of 2008, I remember struggling to FC Straight to Video - I distinctly remember telling my friend how unfortunate it would be if I got a 699 combo and missed, and surely enough, I missed the 700th note. I also managed to have a 1.5:1 perfect/good ratio - so my accuracy was hardly normal. A friend of mine at school who no longer played FFR was, to me, an ultimate god, being able to SDG Vertex Beta, FC'ing CIA Rave and Takecore of Yourself. I was inspired to do the same, so the following night I played those songs - only to get a hefty amount of misses on all three. I remember my friend telling me that I'd get better, but for now, you'll be a noob (jokingly of course). I was aware that I had just started FFR and that everyone starts from somewhere, and I wasn't very good. I remember playing FFLBF and struggling to FC the first part, only to mash like a four year old child plays Rock Band drums.
Early 2009 - I started to play this game a little bit more, but not SM. I started to get slightly better, being able to combo some parts of songs like CIA Rave while struggling in others. At this time, I was still playing index (hey! I forgot to mention this earlier). I was finally seeing a small improvement, and was still determined to beat my friend, Robert.
Mid 2009 - Continuing to play in the hopes of getting better, I was able to FC most of CIA Rave and almost always the beginning part of FFLBF; however, with very minimal accuracy, which is why I kept myself at around mid D2/high D2. I was still that kind of person to mash songs, and Robert was always the one to tell me not to. It was at this time he recommended I make the switch to spread and improve my scores - as index was a visible hindrance in his eyes.
Late 2009/Early 2010 - It's been just over a year since I've started, and the switch to spread has began. No noticeable difference was made in my eyes, it was just really uncomfortable on my left hand. Despite my displeasure with spread, I was still motivated to beat one of Robert's scores, so I continued to play as he did hoping I'd improve the same way. In terms of scores, they stayed at par.
2011 - Somewhere in 2010 and 11, FFR had gone down, and I only had access to the lightdarkness engine and SM. I played the LD engine far more often than I did with SM, and this is when the noticeable improvement came in. Something started to kick in and I got significantly more adept at playing FFR. My accuracy rose significantly. I was able to get 11 goods on the intro of FFLBF (first 600 or so notes) with only a few boos. I also got 20 or so goods with minimal boos on Vertex BETA (although unrecorded). It occurred to me that I had experienced my first skillboost.
2012 - From 2011 to 2012, I played FFR and SM
religiously, (FFR had come up in late 2011, if I recall correctly. I had a grand total of only 800 million in around 2011, and it was at this point I took FFR far more seriously than I did before. My SM skill started to ramp up due to my FFR skill, and upon getting my new keyboard in mid 2012 (Corsair K90, my scores shot up MASSIVELY). Sometime around March 2012, I finally did what I wanted - beat my friend Robert's scores. Actually... all of them, come to think of it. I was SDG'ing CIA Rave constantly, FC'ing Vertex Beta with teens clean, and even FC'ing FFLBF with 40 goods. I continued to improve skill at a very noticeable rate, quickly being able to FC harder songs as they came along. I had attained veteran status somewhere at the end of the year as well.
2013 - Considered a D4 player by this time, I had won psychoangel's tournament along with continuing to ramp up increasingly good accuracy scores and FC scores. It was at this point I had gotten 2-0-0-1 on SP as well as 4 clean on Vertex BETA. Most importantly, I had snagged my first FMO AAA (Perfect Cherry Storm, a 71). By this time, I was beating my now retired friend Robert in all aspects. My scores had improved so drastically. I was overjoyed, continued to play religiously. My biggest skillboost was about to come along. In just 3 weeks from my D4 scores, I had AAA'd PCS and gotten 3 clean on reality, a 9-3-1-2 on Saddest RMX, a 2-0-0-2 on Einstein-Rosen Bridge, as well as a 1-0-1-2 on /mu/tant corecore. Then that fateful day at school when I asked my friend to borrow his laptop for my prep block. I didn't have any extra work, so I hopped on FFR and hoped a new keyboard wouldn't be too hard to get used to. Turns out it wasn't. My very first play - on NaiNai69... a AAA. The message popped up telling me I'd gotten Scarhand. I remember screaming "holy f***" for almost 25 minutes before sitting down, still mumbling "oh my god" every so often under my breath. In just 3 weeks I had gone from a low D4 player to a D6 player. This was around round 3 of the 8th official, so I was not moved up a division. I started to post my scores on Facebook to my friends in the hopes they'd cheer me on to victory during the 8th official. I continued to play crazy amounts of FFR hoping to pull out a better score than everybody else. Around this time, I had gotten my 10-0-0-1 on Ehhen as well as my 19-1-0-3 on Eclipse (Solar). My scores were still getting better. Next was a 9-1-0-3 on Pandora and a 7-1-0-2 on Jamais Deux. Even better. The later rounds of the 8th tourney finally came along, and it was at this point I focused solely on tournament songs. Panicking on Crow's Ghost, I was afraid I wouldn't improve from my (12?) good run, and I decided to record a video. I AAA'd until 1400 combo, where I picked up a miss, I blew it off with the realization that it was still a fantastic score. A couple of goods rolled in and another miss. I had pulled out a 3-1-2-2 by the end. Heartbreaking, yes, the misses were an extra 4 goods and 4 boos to my score, but in the end, my score was equivalent to 9 goods. I squeaked into the top 8 just barely. 44 Edit came along. With DarkZtar and Mirror posting impressive SDG's. I was determined to beat them, playing at school with a couple friends cheering me on. Then that one run... 3 clean. You heard it here first, I had gotten 3 clean on 44 Edit, propelling me into 1st place by 2 goods. That score was untouchable for a few more days, until a blackflag was attained. I tried to beat my 3 clean, and came close on a few occasions, but eventually the round ended and Lawn Wake was here to play. Lawn Wake was a treacherous song, hard to FC and PA with difficult transitions. I despise this file. Eventually, I was able to pull out a 13-x-x-x score which put me in first by quite a bit. Mirror and d4u closed in on my scores, but I was able to stay ahead that round. I had made it into the top 3. Playing Super Mario World While Taking Mushrooms was the final song. This 90+ song was a difficult little bugger and had thoroughly destroyed my hands after a week. I remember waking up the morning after the start of the round and seeing D4U's 49-x-x-x run and thinking "wow, that's impressive". I played and got a 70-x-x-x run. I was demotivated, tired, and depressed. I thought I'd never ever be able to beat 49 goods, it seemed hard enough for me to get 50. Mirror came in and posted a low 40's score with astonishing cleanliness, pulling ahead of D4U and putting me at the bottom. Getting my scores to the 50's finally came along, but I was still behind d4u by 5 points. THEN the motivation came in. I had an 18 good run around the halfway point of the song, when it lagged out and dropped 7 or 8 misses. I continued in realizing it was still better than my 50 good run and that it would do something. It turned out to be equivalent to 46 goods or something. By now, D4U had improved to a high 30's score, while mirror improved with an even cleaner 40's, pulling back into 1st. I realized had those 8 misses not popped up, my score could have been lower by up to 16 goods (a landslide over 1st place at the time). I was livid with my computer. It was my goal to crack down and not give up. My computer was going to give me a good playable run. I got that playable run, pulling out a score only
30 points better than Mirror's. (by the way my score with those laggy misses would have been better than my score by 95 points still, but it was still 1st). Sure enough, that score stayed in first place as all of us grew tired of the song. The round ended and I had wom my first official tournament
I still play SM regularly, playing on rates and SMO with Mirror. Just like my friend Robert motivated me, an evenly matched player like Mirror really brings out the best scores in me. While he has his strengths, I have mine, and every time we lose to each other because the other got their favorite patterns, we just use it as an excuse to play for the high score. Having a friend to play with, whether at your skill level, far above, far below, is always fun. I play FFR regularly with my best friend here at school now. He's always frustrated saying "you're way too good for me", just like I'd say to Robert. I always tell him, to this day, that I started exactly where he is today. Right now he's improving slowly. One day, he'll get that huge skillboost just like I did. You never know, maybe he'll beat my scores like I did Robert's.
I really hope new players stay motivated to play and understand that they will improve. I really hope I get to meet Mirror sometime soon, we'll have a sick few days together.
I did chart the next couple of years in terms of SM goals, but although I do play regularly, I think my time as a gamer is nearing an end. I'm playing SM less and less, and maybe I'll get back into it (I still have those big goals I'd want to reach), but I'm thinking by next year I may finally call it quits.