osu!

mania Mappool Creation: Analysis and Opinion

written by underjoy

Table of contents:
1. Evolution of mappools
2. Types of charts and patterns
3. Types of mappools
4. Examples of mappools
5. Summary

Mappool selection is one of the most important aspects of a successful tournament.

A mappool itself can be defined as a set of specific charts that are exclusively chosen to be
played within a certain stage of the tourney. Because of how different both charts and
players’ abilities are, and in order to fulfill the tournament’s goal of finding the best player
along with providing an enjoyable and fair experience for the participants, it is vital to
introduce diversity of some kind into the song selection. This allows both to test skillsets of
players and adds a lot of flavor to the tourney, making it more interesting. Tournaments are a
great place to showcase some of the most well-made, challenging or unique charts as well
as highlight charters whose works are picked. What is more, different tournaments have
different rules, different goals in mind, focus on different aspects of gameplay, are catered to
different player environments and levels as well as have their own quirks and nuances.
Therefore, it is a daunting task to create a successful mappool that both fulfills the job of
being a tactical battleground on which players showcase their abilities and is pleasant and
understandable. In this essay I would like to analyze different approaches on to how to
create a good and fitting mappool as well as voice my own opinion in regards to what is right
and wrong in certain situations.

This paper will focus on 4K osu!mania gameplay. It may also cover a large portion of
concepts true in other keymodes, gamemodes and general tournament environments and
many things mentioned here can be extrapolated to them. However, this work largely targets
the specifics of 4K tournament scene and some of these specifics may not work in other
circumstances.

1. Evolution of mappools
With more and more tourneys taking place in osu!mania, mappool selection has
become a somewhat standardized task. It is no surprise that if a set of songs is to be
considered good and fair for the players, it should have some kind of structure that remains
constant and easy to grasp as the tourney progresses. The so-called mappool meta has
evolved significantly since the earliest days of competitive osu!mania (marked by MWC
2014). On the next page is an example of how a Finals Mappool looked like back then.
 Seemingly random and one-sided mappools that contained maps which were
unbalanced, not useful in a tournament setting or just plain bad produced a tournament
experience that can be mildly described as unenjoyable. The low quality of the pools was a
product of lack of suitable and tourney-oriented maps available as well as inexperienced
mappickers without any coherent idea on to how a mappool should look like. The seemingly
only criteria that were considered in their creation were difficulty and popularity. In the later
tournaments, mappools became more organized and more effort was put into keeping the
set balanced and the difficulty progression steady, mainly because of more competent
mappickers that had a much bigger insight and experience in both playing and charting. The
mappools however still remained rather one sided and focused on raw skill, with little to no
room for gimmicks. Long note or SV charts were completely off-meta and didn’t matter in
these times.

The biggest change in how mappools were constructed happened in the Springtime
Osu!mania Free-For-All Tournament (SOFT) that brought a whole new level to mappool
engineering and initialized the all-rounder archetype that is cultivated to this day. The main
idea behind this tournament was to test all possible skills of 4K play, including off-meta skills
that only a handful of players had any experience with. On the next page is how a Finals
Mappool looked like. Mappools were constructed in such a way that participants had little
steady ground and were forced to compete on charts they didn’t feel comfortable on -
mappools focused around their weaknesses, not around their strengths. Long notes and SV
charts became incorporated to mappool structure and they stayed there for good, causing a
lot of good but unable to adjust players to be eliminated in early phases. However, the pools
weren’t perfectly balanced. Since these pool were pioneer in their nature, many of the charts
used either weren’t of great quality or just didn’t match the difficulty of the rest of the pool.
The first edition of SOFT was undoubtedly a big success, but also an experiment that
divided players. Because of how heavily it focused on previously unexplored types of charts,
and how few players were effectively able to cope with them, many players didn’t want to
play in a tourney that doesn’t test what they considered “real” skills, focused on raw skill
such as speed, stamina or jacking ability. Most of these players had a Stepmania
background, in which gimmick skills did not exist. Since their raw skill abilities did not
guarantee them a win against a seemingly much weaker opponent who was however better
on long note maps or practised the SV picks thoroughly, many players felt frustration,
magnified by the experimental and even sadistic nature of SOFT. On the other hand, a
majority of players, especially those centered around and native to osu!mania, as well as the
organizers and pickers themselves, were sure about one thing - that the idea of a diverse,
balanced and all-round mappool is the future of osu!mania tournaments.

SOFT resulted in a strict and precise tournament structure that allows every type of
player to find and use a type of charts he’s good at and capitalize on his opponent’s
weaknesses. Because of how diverse the pools are, and how strongly players’ skillsets
differ, it is not enough for players to just play the pools during the matches and shine with
their abilities. It has become necessary for a player to thoroughly practise the mappool in
order to win a match, especially when it comes to SV picks, which were frequent in the early
renditions of all-round mappools. Negligible effort in practicing the pools resulted numerous
times in a strong, but unprepared player being defeated by a weaker player that has not
been sightreading the mappool. What is more, scouting and tactics became a very important
part of the tournament experience. Knowing what your opponent can and cannot do and
carefully planning both your picks and ban(s) often stated the difference between a win and
a loss. Even the warmup game, which was often the playground for memes, became also a
scouting tool to predict the opponent’s proficiency at a given type of maps and adapt
accordingly to his performance. Because of these reasons, SOFT was a great success that
opened the way to serious and fair tourneys. The following tournaments, including Mania
World Cups of both keymodes, copied SOFT’s success and built on it, further improving and
balancing mappool structures. With less of a sadistic approach and more content made with
long note and SV in mind, mappools contained charts that were of considerably higher
quality or even specifically made for that tourney in case a suitable pick of a given category
was not found. Below is an example of MWC 4K 2018 Finals pool.

With diversity there also came issues. Because of how precise and predictable
mappool structures have became, mappools often became the subject of heavy criticism for
not fulfilling the players’ expectations. These reservations were mostly concerned about a
certain pick not satisfying the general archetype it was supposed to represent, or
incorporating different skills into it that blurred its primary job. This was especially the case in
hybrid or tiebreaker maps that were catering more towards one skill more than the others
which caused a visible bias and favored one of the players. In that case, one of the skills
became a deciding factor that overshadowed all of the different abilities the map was
supposed to test. Another problem that occured was that maps which were seemingly purely
focused on a given type of patterning contained occasional or filler sections that were
focused on something else in such a way that these sections became the main choke points
in the chart. Because of this, players specializing in a narrow area that expected to win their
comfortable picks were denied of doing so. The main culprit behind most of these cases
were long notes or SVs that caused “rice” players to miss in parts trivial to players
specialized in said patterning, giving them an advantage, as the reverse situation happened
much less frequently. These problems regarding mappools structures, although certainly not
intentional, became the reasons to call certain mappools bad and despite the efforts to avoid
them, they haven’t been fully eliminated. One of goals of this paper is to explain how to fix
such errors.
 2. Types of charts and patterns

Before jumping straight into mappool structure discussion, it is crucial to categorize

and define the very building blocks of a mappool. Because there are so many chart types, a
mappool selector must decide, which of them are the most important in a tournament setting.
What’s more, he needs to balance them so that they accurately fulfill the expectations the
players have for the tourney. Some skills are more important than the others and finding the
equilibrium is a challenging task, especially in an all-rounded tournament.

In general, there are four types of charts in osu!mania. These are:

● note focused charts (“rice”)
● long note focused charts (“LN”)
● gimmick focused charts (“SV”)
● multitype charts / charts with no major focus (“hybrid”)

These types have their obvious subtypes, and these subtypes have their own
subtypes. Because of this, it is quite complicated to name each single category a map can fit
into. I will try to focus on the most prominent ones, as well as discuss the importance of each
one.

2.1. Note focused charts

Rice charts are the most important category of osu!mania charts, and this statement
can probably be extended to almost any other rhythm game (in particular, Etterna, BMS and
DDR). Every chart, even if it’s not focused on rice, requires a certain level of rice skill to play.
Because of this, the ability to play note focused patterning is often called “raw skill”. Since
rice is virtually everywhere, it is crucial to be decent at it in order to stand a real chance in a
tournament. Pure rice charts are by far the biggest group of charts, not only because they
are so primal in their nature, but also because they have a vast amount of subtypes that
have little in common. Stepmania/Etterna is the biggest environment for this type of charts
and has raised numerous high level players who play only rice, barely touching any of the
three other types of charts. Because of this, it is not uncommon to see players absolutely
dominating rice charts but having issues with just basic long notes. It is also worth noting
that it is the only type of skill that is possible to develop in a pure form as every other
non-rice category has some degrees of rice, as said earlier. Raw skill is the most important
ability and the one that determines player’s overall level. It is not the only ability though,
which is very important in all-round tourneys.

Rice can be divided into a handful of categories. I will analyze each of them:
 2.1.1. Speed

Speed is one of the skills that has a major impact on player’s raw skill. Among rice
types, speed is probably the hardest one in terms of sheer reading needed to deal with fast
streams. Speed files have usually fairly low density and many of them can be manipulated to
some degree. In a tournament setting, most of the times an overall better raw skill player will
be better at speed than the other one. Speed is all about the ability to do quick one hand
trills, fast minijacks as well as keeping focused, as mistakes can result in falling out of the
stream and tanking the score. While hitting basic streams, especially in BPMs under 300, is
not a very hard thing to do, speed files are usually tough to get good ratio on as they require
perfect control and hand stability on fast patterns.

There are four types of speed files:

a) Stream speed
Examples of files:
- DJKurara - Japanese Transformation (XeoStyle) [Xeo vs _UJ Insane]
- Kalmar Kube - Tri Poloski (Jole) [adidas]
- LeaF - Ikill (Fullerene-) [ilikexd]

These are the most basic speed files. They feature medium-high BPM streams with
that usually require high one hand trill speed. Although the patterning is usually made to be
comfortable, it is not that easy to manipulate. They are mostly singlestreams and light
jumpstreams.. This category contains the majority of low to mid difficulty speed files and
tournament “speed” picks are usually within this group. They are decently easy to ratio for
players that are good enough.

b) Rolly speed (manipulation)

Examples of files:
- Jea - Makiba (Mudkips) [IcyWorld’s Challenge]
- Shiraishi - Odin (Fullerene-) [VIKINGFJORD]
- Aquors - Aozora Jumping Heart (Skwid) [Lv.9]

The “rolly speed” group consists mostly of dumps and high bpm delaystreams. The
BPM is usually higher than “stream speed” and can reach 400+. The streams have very rolly
patterning which makes them prone to being manipulated, although they require a good
amount of control since mistakes are usually costly on these files. Because of the sheer
speed, they require high reading and pattern recognition skills. Getting a good ratio on these
files is very hard. This type is usually introduced in later stages of tournaments as a second
speed pick since it is rare to find files in this category on lower levels of difficulty. There are
some players which are decent at “stream speed” but cannot cope with “rolly speed” too
well.
 c) Tech speed
Examples of files:
- Creaky Jackals - PLVCK (Flexo123) [Extra]
- xi - PEACE BREAKER (Fullerene-) [FINAL PUNISHMENT]
- TK from Ling tosite sigure - unravel (Shoegazer) [escapist]

This is a broad category which combines previous two types and requires even more
control. These are almost exclusively dump files which feature irregular and changing stream
speeds and bursts with semi-comfortable patterning that can get unusually rigid in certain
moments. The difficulty comes not only from dealing with the raw speed but from
understanding the stream speed changes and rhythm. It is the hardest category to get good
accuracy as it is fairly easy to get high 200 counts even for top players. Some of these
charts contain ultrafast bursts that usually cannot be played legitimately. Very fast occasional
minijacks are also frequent, especially when paired with jumps and one-handed patterning.
“Tech speed” is usually not a standalone speed pick, it often gets incorporated into either
pure speed category or as a harder tech pick. In general players that are good at both speed
and accuracy can deal with “tech speed” efficiently, but players that lack one of these
abilities will have difficulties either getting a high score on the chart or not be able to keep up
with it’s rigidity.

d) Jumpstream speed
Examples of files:
- antiPLUR - Speed of Link (Shoegazer) [Extra]
- Chihara Minori - SELF PRODUCER (Evening) [ASPIRANT]
- Haunted Shores - The Spire (Valedict) [Warborn]

“Jumpstream speed” files are a somewhat mixed type and can be described as just
that - fast light jumpstream. They usually have lower BPM than other speed types, are more
static in terms of stream speeds and contain more jumps and even hands in them,
increasing the overall density. As straightforward as they are, they are usually stamina
intensive and require less reading. They aren’t really picked as a subtype of speed and are
often a second, faster jumpstream pick in later stages of tournaments.

2.1.2. Stamina

Stamina is probably the broadest category of rice as there is a multitude of charts

that strain players’ hands for extended periods of time. Overall though, and specifically in
case of mappool selection, stamina refers to jumpstream and handstream files rather than
tiring speed/jack files and that is where I will put my focus on. Stamina charts often are very
straightforward and even monotonous due to repetitive nature of jumpstream patterning
(although there are exceptions to that). Because they often are at 170-250 BPM pace, they
are commonly played on high rates. They are usually the densest files in a mappool and
have the highest average NPS, however it is not uncommon for them to be amongst the
easiest rice picks of the pool. This can be explained by a multitude of players being well
accustomed to these types of charts as they are the most commonly played category of rice.
Because of this, stamina picks often become an accuracy and consistency battle on lower
levels and reliable raw skill comparators on higher level pools. Stamina picks will be
commonly called “jumpstream” files since this is a much more popular term.

It is hard to accurately name types of stamina picks because they overlap so much,
however I came up with seven different categories that can be brought up:

a) Handstream (dense)
Examples of files:
- Sharkey & Arkitech - Quadraphinix (Xay) [Challenge]
- Camellia - ANOMALY (Lynessa) [x1.0]
- Coakira - No Running!!! (Quick Draw) [Zen’s Infinite Fury]

Dense handstream is probably the most obnoxious type of stamina files. These are
amongst the densest charts on average and require high levels of stamina to consistently hit.
Because of the way dense handstreams have to be built, they require constant one hand
trilling as well as slow chordjack skill. They can be manipulated to a degree, especially if
they are fast, and since there are not many ways you can construct such handstream, they
are actually quite easy to control. In mappools, there isn’t usually a pure dense handstream
pick and even in actual picks dense handstreams are uncommon.

b) Jumpstream (dense)
Examples of files:
- DJ Sharpnel - Cyber Inductance (Speed Up Ver.) (IcyWorld) [NB4]
- Fleshgod Apocalypse - Kingborn (Xcaliboor) [Excoriation]
- DJ SEVEN P’n’B Remix - To Dimension (IcyWorld) [Lv.15]

This category contains both full dense jumpstreams and even these with occasional
hands in the mix, just not as dense and straightforward as dense handstream. Jumpstreams
require less raw hand stamina and trilling ability and their difficulty heavily relies on their
patterning. They can be almost jumptrillable or they can be trilly and require high amounts of
control, higher than the handstream maps.
These files are very popular and played often and because of this they are commonly
acting as stamina picks in various tournaments. Sometimes there is even a distinction
between “jumpstream” pick and “stamina” pick, the latter being a much longer but slower
chart.

c) Jumptrillstream / Jumptrillhandstream
Examples of files:
- LV.4 - Aestivalis (Leo137) [Challenge 25]
- Betwixt & Between - 7701 (IcyWorld) [1.0]
- sun3 - AA (Elekton) [beginner]

The major difference between jumpstream and jumptrillstream category is the

frequent presence of 1/4 jumps, either mixed into the jumpstream or in split jumptrills which
are often used in this type of charts. These files are probably the hardest and most
physically taxing type of stamina charts. They combine relentless density, tiring one hand
trilling and 1/4 jump intrusions that change the rhythm of the jumpstream. A variation of
jumptrillstreams are jumptrillhandstreams which combine dense handstreaming with
jumptrills, becoming even harder and staining. This type of stamina charts is difficult to keep
good accuracy and misscounts on, as it requires constant focus and the knowledge of the
pattern’s rhythmical structure. While most players don’t have trouble with usual jumpstream
and handstream picks because they have jumps on constant 1/1 and 1/2 snaps, they can
struggle and get lost in jumptrillstreams, especially if they lack the sheer one hand trilling
stamina needed. Because of the difficulty they present, they are played on lower BPMs than
other stamina files. They aren’t picked in tournaments too often mainly because there aren’t
too many charts of that type, especially in osu!mania, they are converted by people who
didn’t make them, and they are hard to balance with the rest of the mappool. On the other
hand, these files are the best test of a player’s acquaintance and real ability to read, play
and withstand the hardest patterning stamina files have to offer.

d) Broken jumpstream / handstream

Examples of files:
- goreshit - benzo (with me eternal) (Couil) [lost]
- Yooh - Salvation (Guilhermeziat) [Resurrection]
- 403 ERROR - Forbidden (Shoegazer) [17-]

A rather uncommon type of stamina files, these are basically files of previous types,
that have very high amounts of short breaks, either in a simple or sophisticated fashion.
Seemingly easier due to less continuous strain and lower stamina requirement, these files
are very rhythmical and knowing the break structure is key to being comfortable with the
map. Because of how straightforward usual stamina charts are, inserting one snap breaks
can break a player’s composure and reading. It is not uncommon for weaker players to not
notice these breaks at all during first playthrough, making them cripple their accuracy or
miss. These files are similar to jumptrillstreams in sense that they require total understanding
of how the patterning is built. Because of breaks, some of these charts utilise even more
hands and even quads, which results in ultrahigh density even if the stream is not fully
continuous. This is rather rare though, and because of this, broken jumpstream files aren’t
used as a pure category. On the other hand, due to their rhythmical nature, they are often a
vital component of consistency/longer stamina picks.

e) Light (fast) jumpstream / handstream

Examples of files:
- Fleshgod Apocalypse - The Hypocrisy (Phil) [Torment]
- Freedom Dive (tpz Overcute Remix) (Shoegazer) [Ayumu]
- Tatsh - IMAGE -MATERIAL- <version 0> (Fullerene-) [Refraction]

Light jumpstream / handstream are another common and highly popular type of
charts. They usually are built on 1/1 chords linked with streams. Sometimes the structure is
more freeform, with jumps put on 1/2 as well, but the overall density is not as high as other
types of stamina files. Since they are easier to hit due to their less demanding nature and
usually lower amount of one hand trills, they allow much higher speeds, even exceeding 300
BPM. Due to this, this type is very similar to the “jumpstream speed” and they usually fulfill
the “fast jumpstream” pick. Light handstreams are more straining and not really used as
speed oriented picks that much, although the difference is only noticeable if a mappool has
two speed picks and two jumpstream picks.

f) Mixed stamina
Examples of files:
- Kopophobia & Ajataa - Starfall (riktoi) [Planetary Annihilation]
- Aquellex - Wanderflux (LeiN-) [Luminous]
- Imperial Circus Dead Decadence - Shinbatsu o Tadori Kyo Kotsu ni Itaru
(Guilhermeziat) [Evening’s Till November Night]

Mixed stamina refers to either a very diverse jumpstream pattern galore as well as
mainly jumpstream files with extra speed/technical elements. A lot of dumps are in this
category. If a chart is jumpstream based but doesn’t quite fit any other type well, it can be
referred to as “mixed stamina”. These files test the overall potency of a player when it comes
to high density and speed and are one of the purest raw skill types. They sometimes work as
stamina/jumpstream picks, although they are usually not the same until higher levels of
gameplay, where these extra elements are overshadowed by raw difficulty of the jumpstream
patterning itself.

g) Raw stamina
Examples of files:
- Blind Fury - The End (Wiosna) [Challenge 20]
- Falcon Sound Team jdk - The Azure Arbitrator (Evening) [The Crimson
Instigator]
- Kopophobia & Space Chimp & MinDelve - Naruto RMX (_underjoy)
[Tsukuyomi]

While this category might not be a different subtype in terms of patterning used, it
stands out for the extraordinary length of raw stamina charts. These charts are the real
embodiment of what “stamina” means, pushing the limits of how long a player can sustain
neverending streams. Because they are so long, they aren’t really picked in tournaments.
Other subtypes that feature long and tiring files are used instead, since they are more
convenient and test the same thing.

2.1.3. Jack

Jack files are far more unique than previous two types of rice. They are tightly
connected to physical capabilities, especially files revolving around very fast, very long or
very relentless jacks. There is also a big gap between subtypes of jack maps as some
people can dominate a certain type while being completely helpless at another. Moreover,
they often are very binary in terms of skill needed - a player either can or cannot keep up
with them, and the moment his stamina ends, the score falls dramatically. This is also the
reason why even 0.05x rate changes can massively affect the score, sometimes reaching
even 4% accuracy difference between these rates. Jack charts focus heavily on wrist
movement and control, although one hand trilling speed and control is also useful when
dealing with fast chordjacks or minijacks mixed with various patterning. Since most of jack
files follow a rather slow and steady pace, they are very easy to get good accuracy at if the
player is in his comfort zone. Tournaments often skip the jack category completely until later
stages, where only one pure jack pick is introduced, usually based on slow and steady
chordjacks. Most of the time jack elements, especially minijacks and fast jacks, are a part of
tech files. In the final rounds a second jack pick may be introduced and it usually covers the
more unique longjack/vibro aspect. On the other side of the spectrum, very easy files with a
jack structure can be used as accuracy picks in early rounds.

a) Chordjack
Examples of files:
- Susumu Hirasawa - Chaser (Wh1teh) [Wristjacker]
- Yuuna Kamishiro - Shrill False (Hydria) [Lunatic]
- HHH x MM x ST - Follow Tomorrow (HaLa) [sibal]

Chordjack files are the classic representation of jack charts. They are usually built
from 1/4 jumps with hands in either 1/1 or 1/2 intervals. Sometimes quads are also added,
they aren't very frequent though in a basic chordjack file. Chordjack maps can either focus
on high strain by consistently chaining the jumps and creating anchors or have a mix of
chained and unchained jumps which make them more bearable for longer periods of time.
Suitable BPM for chordjacks is usually anywhere between 100 and 160, mostly in the
125-145 range. Chordjack files are a prime example of "Jack" picks in tournaments.

b) Handjack / Koreajack / Note inverse

Examples of files:
- YST - The Lost Dedicated (Zyph) [4K]
- Sisato with Na+ - CG901B ([Crz]Rachel) [Impossible]
- saikoro - far in the blue sky… (ExNeko) [Etterna’s 32]

This is the second densest type of overall rice patterning, second only to vibro.
Charts of this category feature ridiculous, continuous handjacks, frequent quads and even
the so-called note inverses - alternating quads and hands. This type of patterning requires
very high amounts of stamina and is difficult to read and play correctly. Because of this, most
people try to quad their way through these patterns or just straight up can't deal with them.
They are rarely seen above 140 BPM and even at 130 BPM only specialized jack players or
very good and durable rice players can cope with this category. Easier "koreajack" files have
less density and play with alternating jumps and quads. They aren't so stamina draining but
still require high finger coordination because of split jump into hand patterning. Since there
aren't many files of this category and they are unique in terms of gameplay, they usually
aren't used as tournament picks. The exception are slow, under 120 BPM files that can be
used instead of pure chordjacks for general jack accuracy and control purposes.
 c) Fast chordjack (“fastjack”) / jumpglut
Examples of files:
- Hommarju - Hellfire (snoverpk) [GRAVITY]
- dj TAKA - True Blue (Evening) [your departure, my acceptance]
- LV.4 - Angel Dust (2016 Radio Mix) (Fullerene-) [Shift]

This type is very different than previous two both in terms of patterning used and
actual technique needed to perform these files. Unlike chordjacks focused mainly on wrist
movements, with one hand trill capabilities to aid controlling and avoiding 50s on
dense/chained handjacks, "fast chordjack" files are heavier on the fingers than wrists, with
one hand trilling being crucial to hit these patterns. Players good at speed are usually also
good at this type of jacks, partially because speed files can be manipulated into jumpgluts,
while pure wristjackers may struggle with keeping up with the speed needed. These files are
often in 155-190 BPM range and feature bursts of jumpgluts with rather easy patterning,
mixed with jumpstreams. The density is not as high but the stamina component is still there.
They are sometimes used as a sole jack pick which may cause inbalance as it technically is
a handicap for speed-oriented players rather than chordjackers. Other than that, jumpglut
elements are often used in higher-end tech and tiebreaker charts.

d) Minijack / minijack speed

Examples of files:
- DJ Sharpnel - Moonearth (Fullerene-) [Lv.19]
- DJ Myosuke - HARDCORE NO KOKOROE (Original Mix) (Fullerene-)
[CORECORE]
- Kemu - Chikyuusaigo no Kokuhaku wo(Full ver) (Areicia) [Challenge 15]

This type is partially built on the previous one and can be further split into two
categories. In the first one there are jumpstream or tech charts which are very frequently
utilising fast and sometimes uncomfortable minijacks. These maps require incredible
precision and finger control to nail these minijacks correctly without getting thrown out of the
rhythm and missing on consecutive notes, which are either speedy/dense segments or even
more minijacks. The other subtype, "minijack speed" is dedicated to ultrafast (200 BPM+,
reaching even 250 BPM in some cases) minijack bursts that are usually incredibly hard to
get good accuracy on. Both of these jack types are never used as standalone jack picks and
are exclusive to tech, and even there they often aren't the only difficult patterns used. Most
of files of this category are either found on rates or are not uploaded to osu!mania.

e) Quadstream
Examples of files:
- Yuyouppe - AiAe (Fullerene-) [Wafles’ SHD]
- Yooh - Ice Angel (Zenx) [April’s Euphoria]
- DJ CHUCKY - Abyss Of The Darkness (AutotelicBrown) [Ayumu’s abyss]

The infamous quadstream category is a tough crossover between handstream,

koreajack and fastjack types. Since quads in the middle of 1/4 always generate at least two
jacks, these files are quite rhythmical and repetitive. Quadstreams can either be regular, with
jumps on 1/2 and 1/4, or irregular, with jumps directly preceding or following quads - these
are harder, especially if jumps used are not one handed. Quadstreams' main difficulty comes
from two factors. Since they derive from handstreams, they usually are rather fast - above
160 BPM. They also require enormous amounts of one hand trill control because of quad
transitions. Because of this, they are similar to "fast jack" category in terms of difficulty.
Chordjackers can cope with quadstreams only if the density is very low or the BPM is lower
than 150, allowing them to wristjack them - in this case, their accuracy skyrockets and they
beat speedjackers. Quadstreams are used very rarely, and in difficult pools as a secondary
jack type, possibly the fast jack pick. In general though, other types of jacks are preferred
instead.

f) Longjacks
Examples of files:
- SHIKI - Angelic Layer (Tidek) [Insane]
- Chino - Espresso Shots (_underjoy) [Caffeine]
- 36 - Indigo (AutotelicBrown) [Ayumu’s apprehension]

Longjacks are the most isolated jack category that is taken somewhat seriously in the
community. They are the third major type of jacks besides chordjacks and fastjacks. They
feature long, sometimes ridiculously long jacks usually ranging from 120 to 160 BPM, often
accompanied with other notes that form slower "single streams" outside of the jacking
column. Longjacks are considered the most difficult jack type and often treated the same as
vibro files since there are seemingly a lot of similarities. This is not entirely true as longjacks
are extended wristjacks and not vibrated given the player has control over their speed.
These files have a few layers of difficulty upon them. The most obvious one is keeping up
with the longjacks themselves and having enough stamina and technique. In addition to that,
a player has to keep their movements steady and control his pace as losing the tempo
usually means a big chain of bad judgments which cripple the score. The final layer is being
able to play the accompanying patterning as well. It is rather simple if the extra notes are
places on different columns. However, notes places on jacking hand are very hard to control
and often cause a player to either miss the note, get lost in the longjack or both. Because of
this, same-hand notes have to be used consciously by mappers in order to create enjoyable
and balanced charts. There are also some extreme, over minute long longjacks, but they are
usually practice charts. The immense difficulty of longjacks often makes them largely
unrelated to other rice or even jack skills, however they are only used scarcely as a
secondary Finals/Grand Finals jack pick.

g) Jumpjack / Chain / Anchorjack

Examples of files:
- Cyber Rain-Force - Pluto (PiXL) [Star Breaker]
- Kozato snow - Rengetsu Ouka ([Crz]MEIDAN) [Transformation(Lv31)]
- yak_won - Sewing Machine [ideu-] [Hard 4k]

This is a mixed category that builds on the longjack theme and adds more control,
chordjack elements and coordination. The longjacks are usually shorter and are incorporated
into chordjacks, creating anchors which are usually immensely difficult due to the same-hand
notes that often are more chaotic than in pure longjack files. If the anchors are short, even
as short as 3 notes, they create chains which focus on jack switch coordination as they are
linked with chords. Another aspect are jumpjacks, which are easy if one handed, but very
difficult when two handed. They are basically two longjacks at the same time, and require
coordination to be pressed simultaneously, which is not easy since most people have
different jacking capabilities between their left and right hand. These "mixed" types of jack
patterning are rather unique and often poorly patterned. This is the reason they don't get
used in tournaments as they do not fit the usual jack archetypes and only a handful of files is
either of suitable quality or difficulty.

h) Vibro
Examples of files:
- t+pazolite - Electric Butterfly (ATTang) [14]
- 7!! - Lovers (Staravia) [Vibro Lovers]
- Doin - Pine Nut (ATTang) [Lv.27 1.7x]

The most controversial rice subtype that often is not even considered a real skill due
to its obnoxiousness, physicality and genetic factors, vibro charts are played in a fashion that
differs from anything else. The fact that the motions come from vibrating your hands and not
even requiring finger movements causes vibro to be exceptionally hard to control and
master. Vibro charts are usually much faster, 170+ longjacks extended to multiple columns.
As stated before, they are played differently - it is not uncommon for vibro players to keep up
with 200 BPM but be unable to control speeds below 130 if they are bad at wristjacks. Vibro
has substantial negative stigma around it as it is often considered as a form of mindless
spamming, aiming for pass and disregarding score completely. This stems from the fact that
various handstream or speed charts on absurdly high rates can be vibrated, leading to low
score passes undoable in legit ways. Moreover, vibro charts are often very plain and ignore
the musical intricacies. Vibro charts focused on control are rather rare and are similar to
longjack and anchorjack as well as note inverse files. It is no surprise that vibro is not picked
in tournament settings, as it is excluded even from Ranked or Loved sections. In theory, it
could work as an alternative longjack pick, which is unrealistic given the stacked mappols in
allrounder tourneys.

2.1.4. Technical

Tech charts are probably among the most ominous and difficult to execute. Loved by
many and hated by as many, they incorporate a multitude of rice skillsets into one file.
Frequently charted to breakcore and progressive music, which has a lot to offer in terms of
layering and patterning possibilities, tech files are often true masterpieces from a charter's
point of view, utilising various advanced concepts and filled to the brim with intricacies. This
category owes its name to high amounts of uncomfortable, straining and unorthodox
patterning, usually combined with complex rhythmical nature of the song, which is
exceptionally difficult to get good accuracy and control on. Since these charts are often rigid
and filled with difficult to execute bursts, only the top players can say they are "in their
comfort zone", as even experienced rawskillers struggle with keeping their combo and
accuracy on the more demanding files. Because of the amount of effort put into charting tech
as well as rather modest pool of songs that make sensible tech files, this category is
relatively small in the sea of other rice maps, especially on the harder side of the difficulty
spectrum. This is partially remedied with a lot of tech charts being semidumps or even
dumps, and actually the craziest and most unique charts are made with patterns in mind that
are just not viable when it comes to accurately representing the concrete musical sounds.
Tech category is a staple of each mappool and tech elements are common in mixed or
hybrid picks as well.

Tech itself is not really a pure type since it’s mostly a deadly mix of jacks and speed,
and in addition to that there are various quantities of LN and SV as well, that further enhace
the technicality aspects, requiring precise hand movements to execute various staccatos
and technical releases as well as forcing the player to read outside of his comfort area.
However for the sake of this work I won’t be mixing technical files with hybrid files, as their
goal is usually vastly different. Therefore, I would mention three basic tech subtypes. It is
important to acknowledge though, that each tech file is different and it’s rather futile to further
divide tech into more subtypes.

a) Accuracy tech
Examples of files:
- callasoiled - 4172756869 (isagen remix) (Elekton) [dagbgefhfi]
- Shiro Sagisu - Quatre Mains (a quatre mains) =3EM16= (Fullerene-) [pour
quatre cles]
- puru - Toki (maidable remix) (Shoegazer) [Eternal]

Accuracy tech is usually present in all tech files to some degree because of how
difficult it is to time tech charts in general. There’s a general category of files dedicated to the
accuracy compartment, delving into wonky snaps and tricky rhythms more than focusing on
raw difficulty. They frequently feature chaotic, constantly changing or nonstandard or snaps
(e.g. 1/5, 1/7), flowing BPMs or even both. These files are often accompanied by a high
HP/OD setting for amplified challenge. Long notes and SVs are also not uncommon in this
category, although they should be of secondary importance in a good accuracy tech chart.
This is one of the basic tech categories for lower levels of mappools, and it loses its
importance in the higher rounds as it usually gets replaced by more rawskill-oriented charts
(which are also hard to time properly though). If a pool has two tech picks, one of them can
easily be focused on general difficulty and another can have emphasis on timing difficulty.

b) Speed/minijack tech
Examples of files:
- Camellia - Fastest Crash (Shoegazer) [Paroxysm]
- Aquellex - Tachyon Beam Cannon (Gekido-) [Destruction]
- Xanopticon - Psicicite (Shoegazer) [Extreme]
 Speed and minijack tech revolves mostly around fast, brutal minijack patterning
mixed with deadly bursts and transitions. This category is possibly the most difficult to
handle as the patterns used are a real challenge to hit legitimately and control the
outstanding hand speed required. These files can be very hard and very stamina draining,
but can also be surprisingly light outside of the choke sections. Tournament picks in this
category are among the hardest charts used for that round as these are almost always risky.
Sometimes one player is better at keeping their combo and another has better accuracy - in
those cases the matches are the most intense.

c) Jack + stream
Examples of files:
- Izayoi Sak - Blue Planet (Shoegazer) [Terra]
- U2 Akiyama - Odore Mizushibuki (Shoegazer) [Macabre]
- EBIMAYO - Firefly City (Short Edit) (LeiN-) [Light Swarm]

The jack + stream subtype is rather difficult to precisely define, yet it still differs
clearly from the previous two types. It consists of jack patterning of medium (usually 130 -
160 BPM) speed that is regularly broken and joined with streams and bursts. It is a sort of
hybrid between chordjack and speed charts, constantly requiring players to switch between
these two types of patterns. Unlike speed/minijacks tech, these files aren't nearly as fast or
deadly, but they still require good amounts of raw skill to execute. The tech picks used in
tournaments focus more on the jacking aspect, utilizing different snaps and uncomfortable
transitions, but they still contain the burst elements. They can become the "faster jack" pick
and then the speed/minijack type works as a more general tech in later phases. Files of this
type are avoided at early rounds due to other two categories better fulfilling the tech
archetype.

d) Rice hybrid (Rice tiebreaker)

Examples of files:
- ueotan - Escape From Predicament (Murasame)
- Camellia - Shun no Shifudo o Ikashita Kare Fumi Paeria [Giant Pacific
Octopus]
- Various Artists - Overjoy 5 Mix (Zyph) [4K]

This is not an actual type of tech, but it is still listed under tech category as it
technically (no pun intended) encapsulates similar elements, albeit in a different way. In the
same way technical charts can be thought as charts mixing different aspects of rice play
simultaneously, rice hybrids separate these aspects but still contain them in a single chart.
Rice hybrids have sections which put emphasis on different rice skills which usually aren't
heavily mixed with themselves. In the end, a player that can more successfully deal with
more of them wins. As rice is such a broad category, it is not possible to encompass every
single rice pattern. Instead, general notions of each skill are used and they often correspond
to skills usually picked in tournaments. The degree of each skill varies with song nature and
it is uncommon to find perfectly balanced files of this type. Rice hybrids aren't picked often
because it's difficult to find charts of this type, the pools are usually too small and "pure" tech
works in a similar (although still not the same) manner as a test of a general rice ability.
 2.2 Long note focused charts

Long notes are the second type of objects found in various charts. They are usually
to some degree used in most of the files, including rice files, however there is a clear
distinction whether these long notes have a real impact on a player's score or cause no
significant difference and work only as a visual accentuation of certain sounds. A problem
emerges when the small LN amounts used for aesthetic and accentuation purposes actually
impact the gameplay and cause problems to purely rice players. With Score v1 this is usually
a negligible issue, yet because Score v2 is widely used in tournament play, and because it is
rather strict when it comes to long note releases, these small LN additions can actually make
a difference, especially if used in picks that are not treated as LN. These problems stem
from the fact that LNs are not a requirement for a chart to be valid - they are an addition
which also always generates some amounts of rice difficulty. A good amount of players don't
include LNs in their playing routine, either because they can't learn them or don't want to
learn them. Indeed, LN charts were a novelty until they started to be included into
tournaments. This caused more LN maps to appear and more players decided to specialize
in LN either because of bigger tournament chances, or simply because they found LN files
fun. Nowadays long notes are a vital part of osu!mania tourney experience although they still
are relatively rare in Ranked or Loved sections and only a small amount of players is truly
dedicated to playing mainly LN files. There is a hefty amount of different LN charts to
practice, yet they still are only a small group compared to rice charts.

Because of how LNs work and their high impact on a chart difficulty, even a small
amount of significant LNs can cause as many problems as ridiculously hard rice patterns in
case of rice-only players. Taking this into account, there are three types of charts
pattern-wise: rice charts which contain no significant LN patterning, hybrid charts which
contain significant LN patterning and LN charts which focus on LN patterning. This
distinction is very important as rice players can play only the first type well while LN players
can tackle all three types with real chances on each of them. o!m players can often deal with
hybrid charts with enough LN exposure, yet dedicated LN players are usually guaranteed to
win both LN and hybrid picks unless the hybrid one has heavy rice sections as well. It is
possible to balance the LN difficulty in a way by manipulating the OD of the map - OD 7 and
below makes many releases much more lenient while still enforcing a decent level of
accuracy requirement. On the other hand, OD 9 and higher can cause accuracy issues even
on the simplest of LNs and can shift the balance strongly towards the LN difficulty.

In theory it is possible to generate a myriad of charts of different types by adding

LNs to each of the rice categories. However, in reality it boils down to a few categories which
both contain a decent amount of charts for them and hold enough significance to be put in a
mappool. Here are the ones I find worthy of mentioning:

2.2.1. Inverse
 Inverse charts are rather specific when it comes to LN charts. They disregard
releases, a vital part of LN charts, because of how their reading is dictated by the notes
directly following them. Inverses glue your fingers to your keyboard and dealing with this
requires a good amount of experience and muscle memory. A player usually either can cope
with the general inverse patterning or cannot deal with it at all. It is very easy to get lost in
the more streamy inverse segments because of how difficult it is to perform inverse
one-handed trills and to readjust reading. While slower inverse parts are a good test of finger
coordination, faster inverse streams are cheatable by playing (or at least reading) them
similarly to their LN-less versions due to how short most LNs become. Doing this, especially
with skins with visually shorter LNs, can help keep up a player’s combo but cripple his
accuracy and ratio in return. Inverse charts are notoriously easy to columnlock on ScoreV2,
which is an important issue present in osu!mania and the reason why charts of this type
aren’t played on ScoreV2 outside of the tournament realm too often. Inverse charts can be
read in two ways - either by reading the heads only (arrow skins) or by reading the gaps (bar
skins).

While inverse as a category is rather well-defined and narrow, there still can be some
nuances in regards to how inverses are executed. In theory every rice chart can be remade
into a inverse chart, so I will only mention the most significant types:

a) Regular inverse
Examples of files:
- ETIA. - Firestorm (PiraTom) [inteliser’s OVERFLNOW]
- aaaa + yadorigi - Sakase natsuzora, koi no hana. (scissorsf) [flnowers]
- M2U - Promise (gemboyong) [13]

Regular inverse charts are the most basic and common category of inverse files and
are just that - charts that contain significant amounts of inverse LN patterning with no
significant bias. They aren’t usually very hard and their difficulty is caused by the amounts of
muscle memory needed to execute these inverses and to read them. Most commonly,
regular inverse charts utilise LN 1/2 chord patterning with 1/4 triplets or streams. In
tournaments this is the type that is used as a LN inverse pick - if there is one to begin with.

b) Inverse jumpstream
Examples of files:
- t+pazolite - Unlimited Spark! (remake) [_underjoy] (Prism)
- Helblinde - Yui & I (Cut Ver) (shuniki) [ShuChan!!]
- Nekomata Master feat. Shimotsuki Haruka - Element of SPADA (Yururu)
[Element of LN]

Inverse jumpstream/handstream charts are difficult to define differently than just

saying the name of this category. They are either very hard or very easy for any player who
tries to improve his LN ability. This is because getting used to the exact, legitimate
movements needed and to read these charts properly takes some time, but once it is done,
a player can usually combo the inverses well. Patterns containing higher amounts of
one-handed trills are much harder to play than easier jumpstreams. What is important is that
density and speed play a key role in deciding how a jumpstream is played, but in a different
way than usual. It is not uncommon for less dense inverse jumpstreams to be actually harder
because of longer LN lengths. They also cannot be cheesed as much as a typical dense
jumpstream. What is more, the faster the jumpstream pattern is, the easier it is to ignore the
LNs completely and play them as rice with low enough accuracy penalties, especially with
shortened LN tails. The hardest inverse patterns usually revolve around trills with fingers
outside of the trills being held. It is important to note that LN handstreams are the easiest
patterns to columnlock, and columnlocks in handstreams over 200 BPM can instantly fail
even a good LN player. Due to general difficulty of these charts and their columnlockness,
they aren’t used as a standalone category, but harder inverse or LN hybrid picks often
contain parts with inversed jumpstreams. It is important to note that inverse jumpstream
charts are often full LN converts.

c) Inverse jacks
Examples of files:
- P4koo - flameflower (_underjoy) [Hanataba]
- Shiraishi - Murderous True Millenium Queen (Gekido-) [retsaM NL eurT]
- Hige Driver join. SELEN - Dadadadadadadadadada (Skorer) [TIER IX]

Probably the most hated inverse type because of how hard it is to play properly.
There are very few files of this category, but nonetheless inverse jacks are a vital part of tech
LN inverse files and even non-inverse charts can contain short segments with inverse jacks.
They rarely exceed 140 BPM for a good reason - jacking with one finger while holding a LN
with another finger of the same hand is extremely difficult and most player’s aren’t even
accustomed to they proper wrist technique of doing this type of movement consistently.
Sections with longer jacks or jacks switching fingers are probably the hardest ones to full
combo since it is so easy to accidentally skip a note or make an inaccurate hand movement.
Inverse jacks are used practically only in technical LN files or very specific inverse charts
and thus aren’t used often in mappools.

d) Release inverses
Examples of files:
- Nekomata Master - Avalon no Oka (Niro-) [LN Deluge]
- various - LN WALL PACK 3 - DENSITY RELEASE TRAINING (Skorer)
- butaotome - towa no maigo (Jungdongjin)

The name of this subtype can be a bit misleading, but in general release inverses are
a very unique crossover between release and inverse charts. The idea is that these maps
have abnormally tight gaps between a LN tail and a new LN head (usually 1/6 or 1/8+) and
they are smaller than gaps between two consecutive LN heads. This leads to serious
consequences - fingers need to be glued so tightly to the keyboard that the releases need to
be quick and precise. Because of this, any attempt of cheesing by releasing the LNs too
early, a common practice in inverse jumpstreams, ends in a rain of bad judgments or straight
misses. Players usually don’t even have the needed muscle memory which causes them to
miss on patterns they would easily play with normal gaps - this is a common result of
straining fingers too much and not being able to follow swiftly and fluently between
consecutive releases. Putting release inverses in a chart is often considered “bad mapping”
or at least not a very nice gesture from the charter, nevertheless it is an actually important,
yet neglected skill to have. Release inverses are only scarcely a part of LN tech files and
probably never happen in pure inverse LN charts used in tourneys.

e) Half-inverse
Examples of files:
- Mayumi Morinaga - dreamin’ feat. Ryu* (+ VOX Mix) [_underjoy] (UJCHAN!!)
- SHIKI - Pure Ruby (Julie) [Overloaded w/ Kamikaze]
- TAGxPON - PUNISHER (inteliser) [SC]

Half-inverses are rather a description of certain patterns used in maps than a

standalone type. A half-inverse is every inverse pattern which does not strictly follow the
release-instant note scheme by deliberately shortening some LNs. While the resulting
patterns often can be played as full inverse anyway, half-inverses are much tougher to get
good accuracy on since the player has to correctly react to some gaps being bigger than
usual - being able to correctly read and play multiple sizes of gaps at once, especially with a
bar skin is a challenging task. Another type of a half-inverse involves full inverse patterning,
but not in all columns. Some columns have only basic rice and this causes serious reading
issues for many players who have difficulties with reading inverses on three columns and
normal notes on the another one. While the first type of half-inverses is sometimes used in
LN maps, the second one is a very specific pattern that appears only in singular charts,
although some charters use them frequently (e.g. inteliser). In general though, half-inverses
often accompany inverse charts or LN hybrid picks in tournaments, and they can sometimes
even work as a release pick, although it’s not too pure.

f) Inverse converts (Full LN)

Examples of files:
- Aika - Sakura Trip (gemboyong) [Well Done]
- Yoko Kanno - Inner Universe (Hyphen’s Bootleg) (Skorer) [TIER X]
- Nanahira - Viva Happy ([-Rinzler-]) [Un-known’s Viva Happy (LN Master)]

The last inverse category is rather a general technique of generating inverse charts
than a brand new type. Every Full LN chart is basically a rice chart inversified. Because of
this, they often have high amounts of inverse jumpstream and jack patterning found nowhere
else in manual LN charts. An important characteristic is that Full LN charts have inverses
from start to end, which can be quite straining for fingers. These charts aren’t taken seriously
anywhere outside of training purposes, though a Full LN pick could technically work in a
mappool as a really obnoxious inverse pick.

2.2.2. Release
Examples of files:
- ZYTOKINE - DESIRE DREAM feat. itori - FELT Remix (_underjoy) [Insane
Side B]
- Nekomata Master - Funny Shuffle (Hydria) [Groove]
 - Dark PHOENiX - The Primal Scene of Japan the Girl Saw (juankristal) [Stage
3: Release]

Releases are the most characteristic aspect of long note patterning as they are the
opposite of rice and probably the hardest thing to execute for players new to LN. In fact,
even trivial LN patterning that has exposed, isolated releases and no notes accompanying
them can cause 200s if a player is not comfortable with properly judging release timings.
Hard release charts are focused on high amounts of chaotic, uneven releases, often placed
on one hand, that give very little aural/visual clues on how to tackle them legitimately. They
are also paired with wonky snapping, both on heads and releases themselves, for added
difficulty. In general, release charts are usually slow and also focus on coordination in some
extent. Some harder ones also contain release inverses, inverse jacks and other technical
LN patterning - since it is hard to make a purely release high difficulty chart, tournaments
shift their focus to tech LN in later rounds. Release picks are a staple in pretty much every
all-rounder mania tournament. Balancing releases in a mappool is a difficult task because
other LN types as well as LN hybrids contain some amounts of releases which can be
deceptively hard and sometimes even destroy the accuracy of rice players who can deal with
every type of rice patterning but struggle with basic releases.

2.2.3. LN Coordination
Examples of files:
- Anamanaguchi - SPF 420 (juankristal) [Introduction]
- Blue Stahli - Shotgun Senorita (Zardonic Remix) (juankristal) [Machine Gun]
- MAK & SAK feat. XANA - Indecent (Nightcore Mix) (Kamikaze) [KAMI'S
RAVE!!!!!!!!!!!]

While releases are the most distinct type of LN patterning, coordination LNs hold the
essence of long notes. It is hard to precisely define what coordination LNs are, but for the
most part they focus on longer LNs, often multiple at the same time, that switch columns in a
tricky way. Dedicated coordination LN files utilize unintuitive LN lengths and it is often hard to
understand their structure at first glance; knowing which long note is mapped for which
sound greatly helps with keeping track of how long the LN needs to be pressed. They
require high amounts of muscle memory and it is very easy to mistakenly lift a LN - and
that’s what the difficulty of these maps is about. The release timings aren’t usually very
difficult, but in more complex maps coordination can be accompanied with some difficult
releases. Coordination LNs can also be tackled in another way - by inserting high amounts
of non-LN chords along with LNs that switch columns, a lot of coordination difficulty is
created. This is further propagated with doubletaps or even minijacks combined with LNs
which can be very confusing to press. Coordination maps are a recent trend in osu!mania
mappooling and in easier rounds there can be a dedicated LN coordination map. In later
rounds though, coordination gets merged into a more general LN pick and many charts
require high degrees of coordination either way.

2.2.4. LN Stream
Examples of files:
 - a_hisa - Cheshire's dance (TheToaphster) [LN Dancing]
- Tennouzu Nazuna (CV.Yamamoto Ayano) - Tic Tac DREAMIN (ALEFY)
[Master [NSV]]
- Co shu Nie - asphyxia (MisterLuka) [eZmmR’s 4K anesthesia]

LN stream is a broad category that describes every map that focuses on faster and
denser LN patterning without necessarily going full inverse. They are usually very
straightforward and in some cases they are nothing more than rice picks with 1/2 and 1/4
simple LNs added to them. LN speed files which have fast streams made of very short LNs
also fall under this subtype. Generally, LN stream files do not focus on releases or
coordination - in fact, faster maps of this kind can be played ignoring most of LNs. The main
difficulty presented by these maps is reading difficulty and being able to accurately hold the
short LNs to avoid any 200s and keep a good ratio. Paradoxally, slower stream maps are
much harder to accuracy than faster ones because 1/4 LNs cannot be tapped as a simple
note anymore and they are long enough to have an actual release difficulty. Since they are
released very quickly, but not instantly, finding that sweet release spot can be tricky for
players less acquainted with long notes. LN stream picks, despite their actual density and
amounts of LNs, are probably the least “LN heavy” pick in terms of skill required - usually
rice players can read and decently play these files, which cannot be said for other types of
LN. This stems from the fact that LN streams have higher rice difficulty, LNs are generally
shorter and less meaningful. This category is popular in a tournament setting and one of LN
picks is usually catering towards LN stream or even LN speed.

2.2.5. LN Tech
Examples of files:
- Sound Horizon - Raijin no Hidariude (-Kamikaze-) [Tempest w/ _underjoy]
- U1 overground - Dopamine (juankristal) [Polyethylene Oxide]
- Sota Fujimori - Move That Body -Extended Mix- (juankristal) [Dance]

This subtype is probably the most difficult and annoying to deal with since even LN
mains struggle with these maps. LN tech is a term encompassing every tricky LN pattern
which requires a great deal of muscle memory, reading, accuracy and general LN skill.
These charts are a heaven for every sort of difficult releases, unorthodox LN snaps and
bursts, jacks, heavy coordination and inverses, release inverses and often are topped with
high OD. LN tech overlaps with other categories and it even replaces release LNs on higher
stages of tournaments. Purely LN tech charts are rare though, similarly to rice technicals,
due to their high complexity, which means that finding a fitting song is difficult and the
mapping process takes very much time.

2.2.6. LN mixed / LN consistency

Examples of files:
- ALiCE'S EMOTiON - Dark Flight Dreamer (PiraTom) [LN MASTER SPARK!!]
- LeaF - Kyouki Ranmai (_underjoy) [Schizoid]
- Senya - Yureru Koi wa Nami no Gotoku LN Master (Ez2dj_7144) [Normal]
 This broad category is a home to every LN map that doesn’t purely and obviously fit
any of the categories above. It is the broadest LN subtype since many LN charts use a
variety of patterning that tests multiple LN skills at once. There is not much else to be said
about this type. In tourneys there’s a tendency to name this category “LN consistency”
instead, but while it technically is correct, LN consistency is supposed to be an easier and
longer pick which tests the whole LN spectrum in a rather tame way. The distinction is
important and LN mixed pick is a proper pick of this type. LN consistency is a better
descriptor for LN accuracy or just a long LN pick, but it’s something different than just a
mixed pick.

2.3. Gimmick focused charts

Charts focused on gimmicks are probably the most controversial aspect of the game
and community is divided on the way they should be treated. Gimmick charts in general do
not focus on raw skill, ability of pressing notes or reading patterns. Instead, they impose a
reading difficulty of some kind and require the player to adapt to it. This reading difficulty can
be either constant (scroll speed change) or dynamic (SV). In result, gimmick charts are
usually not sightreadable and require practice in order to be played well, unlike every other
type of chart where they generally can be easily played if the player is good enough and the
sightread difficulties come from surprising or complex pattern choices rather than reading
difficulty the gimmick maps utilize. Because of this, a vast majority of gimmick maps need to
be trained individually and the gimmick skill does not directly translate to untrained charts. In
other words, learning 99 gimmick charts and being good at them will still cause a player to
fail the 100th chart until a player practises that chart as well. This leads to a partially false
conclusion that since gimmick charts are so specific, they do not test a real skill since they
heavily depend on training. What’s more, they are not a real piece of the game because they
do not translate into any real skill outside of them - being good at gimmicks does not make a
player good at the game and being a skilled player with good raw skill does not equate being
good at gimmick charts. These conclusions are perfectly understandable and valid, however
they do ignore a certain aspect of gimmicks that needs to be pointed out. While learning a
specific gimmick chart can’t really be treated as a skill - everyone can do it with the right
amount of practice, the speed at which a player learns these charts is definitely a skill that
can be learned and trained. Just like being good at puzzling, where the puzzling experience
allows to notice patterns similar across the puzzles and quicker understanding of how they
work, being an experienced gimmick player causes a player to quickly understand the way
the chart is made and use his previous experience to adapt to a new file.

The so-called “SV skill” in reality is a player’s ability to learn gimmick charts, not to
play them. When one player would need weeks of dedicated training to perfectly nail a chart,
with many attempts being based more on randomness than actual progress, SV adepts can
destroy a gimmick chart in a matter of hours or quicker. Gimmick skill is hard to precisely
understand though - some players are just naturally good at gimmicks while others struggle
with them despite practising. There are a few factors that decide on the general gimmick
skill. It seems that being an accuracy player heavily helps in dealing with gimmicks - actually,
these two skills are heavily correlated and most players good at gimmicks are also accuracy
players. Reading habits and skins are also important - SVs are usually less impactful on
slower scroll speeds and thinner notes, and being able to focus on a correct point of the
playfield at will greatly helps with accustoming to gimmicks. Sheer will to practice and learn
SVs is another big factor that tends to be overlooked - actually learning the map and putting
effort to it, being interested with the map itself and deconstructing it is vital to success. Lastly
but not leastly, it is possible that gimmick prowess is correlated with intelligence. It means
that smart people could have better predispositions to learn gimmicks (and not that everyone
that struggles with them is stupid). These factors combined, along with experience, allow to
say that one person is objectively better at SVs than another and if both players practice the
same amount of time, a better gimmick player wins. Even if a player trains for a long time, he
might not be able to beat a better player’s score. This is however not caused by a gimmick
skill alone - accuracy is heavily at play. The score cap for each player is his score set on a
NSV version of the chart, containing no gimmicks. By training, players can improve their
gimmick score to be closer and closer to the NSV score. However, the closer a player is, the
slower he will further improve. At some point when a player is already fullcomboing the chart
and trying to improve his accuracy, he will be mostly doing constant scores and not visibly
improving. This point is different for each player, but accuracy players have it much higher.
Improving a score after this point is similar to improving ratio on regular files - it boils down to
reading comfort, steadiness of movements and understanding the song.

Gimmick files are so unique that it is difficult to balance their presence in a mappool.
Since they require preparation, one of their first uses was to ensure everyone prepares to
the tourney and takes it seriously - otherwise they would lose free points. Because of a
general unwillingness to learn SV charts, especially the more demanding ones, gimmick files
are probably the most frequently banned category in tournament play. They however usually
take at least 2 places in most all-rounder mappools - the idea is that a player cannot fully
ban gimmicks from the pool. This is a flawed idea considering that other types of charts can
be easily banned by either player and SV should be no exception, but this matter will be
analyzed in the Mappools section. In general, since gimmick charts are just a tiny fraction of
all charts in mania, they are largely unrelated to a player’s general skill level and force a
player to spend time to learn them, it is difficult to find a satisfying balance between different
types of gimmicks and the amount of gimmick picks in a mappool. In the current state of the
meta, there are two major gimmick types, usually mapped specifically for a tournament: SV
reading and SV memorization. Usually the hybrid and/or tiebreaker charts also contain some
SVs, and minor SVs can appear in other chart types as well. The difficulty of a gimmick chart
is relative, but most of them can be compared by the time it takes to achieve a certain score
or level of proficiency. In later stages of a tournament, gimmick charts become much harder
to learn and execute - scroll manipulation becomes more pronounced, memorization gets
more chaotic and reading becomes disrupted even more. Gimmick types are also commonly
joined together to further increase the learning difficulty.

There are three basic gimmick types in osu!mania, but there is also another type
marked with * that does not exist there.

2.3.1. Scroll manipulation (Slowjam/fastjam)

 Examples of files:
- Rasu to Ruuku to Nanaki - ASTRO (_underjoy) [SOFT LANDING]
- trapman featuring CreeperWorks - minefield surfing (Kamikaze) [UJ’s 4K
SPEEDTRAP]
- ((LMB)) - Buntan ~Falling in "B" mix~ (Tidek) [%UN%D3%R1%0Y]

Scroll manipulation files are the only gimmick files that work somewhat similar to
non-gimmick charts in terms of learning. Reading strong slowjams or dealing with fastjams is
an ability inexclusive to a chart, and a player that can read slowjams can read them
regardless of which song they are put in. Because of this, scroll manipulation difficulty can
be easily controlled and these maps do not require as much preparation if a player is
familiarized with reading scroll speeds different than his native one. The only notable points
that have to be memorized in pure scroll manipulation charts are the moments where the
scroll speed suddenly changes and the player needs to be prepared for that. Changes of
scroll speed have consequences when it comes to some pattern types. For instance, LN
releases become way harder on low scroll speeds for arrow skin users due to difficulties in
telling when does exactly a LN end visually. Anchored patterning also becomes harder
because of notes overlapping. Accuracy problems appear as well and usually players
transition to either aural timing, or are accustomed to looking much closer to receptors than
they usually do. Some players even quickly cover a part of their screen with something to
achieve the “lane cover” which greatly helps in reading slowjams. Slowjam files are much
more popular than fastjam files - it is much easier to deal with slowjams than with fastjams,
and every fastjam chart can be easily converted to a slowjam chart with playing on a lower
scroll speed. In general though, it is preferable to play on a normal scroll as long as possible
and every player can find his own resolve to this problem. Scroll manipulation charts are
usually incorporated into a SV reading pick although they are two different types of
gimmicks.

2.3.2. SV Reading
Examples of files:
- Srav3R - Kamuy (dionzz99) [Classical Core]
- X&G - Whiplash ft. josh pan (sakuraburst Remix) (error_exe777) [break out]
- Hitori Tori - perthed again (yambabom remix) (TheToaphster) [Extreme]

SV reading are one of the two primary types of SV charts. They still require some
decent preparation, but they usually are possible to sightread to some degree. The idea is
that the SVs are used to throw a player out of rhythm and destroy his accuracy by messing
with his reading without straight deceiving him with SV traps. These charts require a good
understanding of the rhythmical and pattern structure in order to play the appearing notes
without being affected by the chaos of SV changes. This is the type of SVs that aren’t too
challenging to full combo, yet they are difficult to highscore, and because of this players who
are good at SVs have a strong advantage since they can highscore these charts anyway
while other players cannot. SV reading is a staple category of SV picks in tournaments and
often also involves scroll manipulation. It technically also includes small degrees of
memorization needed, although it varies from map to map - many SV charts aren’t made to
be either SV memo or reading and contain a bit of both types of gimmicks. Reading SVs can
also appear in different types of charts, most notably hybrid and tiebreaker.

2.3.3. SV Memorization
Examples of files:
- The Flashbulb - Coinage (Tidek) [Confusion]
- Camellia - Singularity (Evening) [Artificial Mind]
- asha - discrete memories (demo) (pwhk) [shattered <SV>]

The most infamous type of gimmicks and the type that people usually imagine when
they are asked about “SV maps”. SV memorization files are usually simple in their structure,
but their SV make them completely unsightreadable regardless of a player’s skill or
predictive abilities if they do not know that structure. With the usage of 0 BPM lines,
memorization SVs provide a wide array of interesting visual effects made to deceive the
player - stops, teleports, bumps and so on. At the same time, a good SV memorization chart
provides clues to the player that make the chart less random and possible to learn quickly
once the player realizes how the chart is structured. Examples of that signalization would be
repetitive, easy to understand patterning assigned to certain sounds, indicators made from
white lines that signalize a sudden change or patterning that has to be repeated again during
a “blind” section. Memorization maps vary greatly in difficulty - the simplest ones have a few
characteristic traps that repeat over the course of the map, making it possible to adjust and
predict them even during a sightread. The hardest memorization charts require an accurate
knowledge of every sound in the song and its pattern representation. Some extreme
memorization charts literally force a player to memorize all notes despite being laughably
easy in terms of pattern difficulty. Since this is the most basic type of SV, there is a dedicated
pick to SV memorization and SV traps rarely appear outside of it.

* Negative scroll gimmicks and rewind gimmicks also would appear in this category, although
they are not supported by osu! at the moment.

2.3.4. Minedodge*

Minedodge files are only appearing in Etterna and BMS and are not found in
osu!mania. They are a vastly different type of gimmicks and work similarly to staccato (very
short) LNs, except they are invisible. Minedodge files found in other games are often paired
with other types of SV to enhance their possibilities - they introduce fake notes, mine visual
effects and playfield blurring, which decreases the sightreadability of the chart. If mines were
introduced into osu!mania, they could be made into a different gimmick category and secure
their own place in a mappool.

2.4. Multitype charts / charts with no major focus

 The last type of charts is merging three previous ones together, creating the “hybrid”
archetype. These charts are not delving into one particular area of skill but instead tackle
many of them, either simultaneously or consecutively. Mild hybrids are one of the most
popular charts in osu!mania for a simple reason - most mappers don’t care at all about their
maps used in a tournament and do not map specifically for those tournaments. As a result,
they put whichever patterning they see fit and don’t care about mixing styles. Because of
this, even if a chart is visibly catering towards one skillset but it also has meaningful or
nontrivial elements of another, it is a hybrid in a tournament sense. Since there are many
ways to mix different types of patterning up, they create hybrids of different kinds. Because
of this only the most impactful and broad types will be described, as it is rather pointless to
categorize every possible subtype with little or no representation or value.

Hybrid charts are an important part of an all-rounder tournament as they actually do

test the all-rounderness of players. As obvious as that, there are surprisingly little suitable
charts that fit the harsh mappool criteria - a proper hybrid should be balanced and not
significantly favour any type of singular skills. The perfect balance is rather unachievable and
in later rounds there are multiple types of hybrids that counterbalance each other. Even then,
a mappooler may misjudge the amount of representation for each skill - as said before, even
if a chart contains only 15% of LNs, but these LNs are the hardest part of the chart, the map
in questions favours LN players more than rice players because LN players will usually hold
their ground on rice anyway. The opposite rarely is true - a rice player won’t be able to gain
much from a hard rice section in a chart which contains a lot of LNs, since he will lose so
much more on them.

There is also a big difference between multiple skills involved in playing a certain
moment of the map and multiple skills showcased in the course of the map separately.
Generally speaking, hybrids with separated types of patterning do their job better since
throwing everything at once makes only the player who can play everything able to play the
map well. A rice player won’t be able to capitalize on his strengths due to rice being mixed
with LNs, and LN player may not be able to play these LNs regardless since of their high rice
difficulty. The best hybrids tournament-wise combine both isolated segments and mixed
segments, offering a lot of diversity and testing both pure skills and the ability to mix them.
These maps are very rare though, as barely anyone maps with this approach in mind and
mappers prefer to focus on representing the song well instead. More general hybrid picks
are used and each of them works a bit differently. Because of this, a careful assessment
needs to be done to judge the fairness of the hybrid picks, especially when comparing the
numbers of other picks.

2.4.1. Generic (no major focus)

Examples of files:
- Neru feat.Kagamine Rin - Abstract Nonsense (puxtu) [MX]
- Kaneko Chiharu - Kai Dan (Tofu1222) [Daitatsujin]
- Yooh - LegenD. (_FrEsH_ChICkEn_) [EXHAUST]

Generic charts in a hybrid sense are charts that do not try to be hybrids, but because
they aren’t focused on anything in particular, they are hybrid-like anyway. The biggest haven
for charts of this type is the ranked section, which contains many charts of low to medium
difficulty with simple, comfortable patterning and a bit of everything. This is often a byproduct
of mapping sounds without a clear idea or theme of the map and emphasizing whatever
works at the moment. Harder maps of this type do occur and they usually contain
comfortable and jumptrilly jumpstream patterning mixed with bursts of easy patterning, LNs
and SVs, and the last three elements often define the real difficulty of the chart since the
jumpstreams alone are often negligible in terms of choke potential. The simpleness of
generic charts makes them good accuracy or consistency picks or easy hybrids that aren’t
particularly challenging in any area. Generally speaking though, there are often better picks
for hybrid in other categories.

2.4.2. Hybrid (rice emphasis)

Examples of files:
- ARM(IOSYS) feat. miko & kimu - Otaser*Revolution (Long Version) (PiraTom)
[REVOLUTION]
- Reizoko Cj - Cosmos / The R Machine (Chrubble) [Ultimate]
- Camellia - Lunatic Rough Party!! (Long Ver.) (Ichigaki) [Lunatic]

Hybrids with rice emphasis are seemingly popular, but in reality it’s very easy to
underestimate the difficulty of LNs. True files of this category have very hard rice parts filling
the majority of the chart so much that LNs or SVs are barely meaningful even if a rice main
would miss on them. In other words, any difficulty of LNs just gets overshadowed by vast
amounts of rice difficulty that LN or SV mains can’t handle as well. Because of this, rice
hybrids of lower levels tend to be barely existent unless their rice patterning is not filler and
actually challenging. Tournaments usually have a rice-oriented hybrid pick although the
execution of that pick is often debatable.

2.4.3. Hybrid (LN emphasis)

Examples of files:
- uno - #FairyJoke #CAMELLIAS_CHAFFANDTWERKANDCORE_REMIX
(_underjoy) [Lunatic]
- Laszlo - Sphere (Guilhermeziat) [Stage 2: Invariance]
- Camellia - Feeling Sky (Camellia’s “200step” Self-remix) (Chrubble) [Beyond]

Another type of hybrid that is more LN oriented. As mentioned before, this does not
imply that LNs are the bigger portion of the map - they are just more meaningful and have a
bigger impact on the final score. This type is often treated as another LN pick by pure rice
players, although their chances on it are still higher than on a regular LN pick. Similarly to
other types of hybrids though, the execution of the pick can drastically change its character.
There usually is a LN hybrid pick in a tournament that complements the rice hybrid.

2.4.4. SV Hybrid
Examples of files:
- Culprate - Finger VIP (Parachor) [Trigger Finger]
- Camellia - Glitch Nerds (Evening) [Nerdz_.]
- YZYX - Dysnomia (Short Ver.) (TheToaphster) [Oblivion]
 SV hybrids are in a difficult spot because there isn’t really something like a “SV
emphasis” hybrid. This category is reserved for various hybrid charts that also contain a
meaningful SV element that impacts player performance, either by disrupting reading or
forcing to memorize certain parts. Technically speaking this category can be further divided
to rice emphasis + SV and LN emphasis + SV, yet this distinction is largely unneeded. If a
pool contains only one hybrid pick, it can involve some SV, however with two hybrid picks it
would be better if SVs were left for their respective picks and eventually a tiebreaker (scroll
manipulation can appear in them though as it’s generally less impactful).

2.4.5. LNSV
Examples of files:
- Gabriela Lotarynska (CV: Yagi Yuki) - Tak a ja lubie. (eyes) [Borshch]
- Pegboard Nerds - Try This (Ciel) [Your Size]
- ONE - Mirai (arcwinolivirus) [4K SV Innovation]

This is probably the most hated category of them all, both because of its essence
and because of various SV charts used in tournaments that ended here while being labeled
as something else. LNSV are primarily SV charts that also have a meaningful LN element.
Since songs used for SV are often a good LN material and LN-less SV charts can
sometimes be cheated by quadding, many mappers like to put LNs in them. Although the
map might reflect the song better and be more natural, in a tournament this comes with a set
of consequences. Apart from a double reason to ban or hate the map from rice players, SV
players which aren’t good at LNs also get much more uncomfortable, because their SV
ability gets overshadowed by LNs and they have trouble at getting good accuracy. LN mains
also will struggle at LNSV if they aren’t good at practicing SV. Only players that are decent
both at LN and SV can excel at this type. The reason why these files are so difficulty to
accuracy is that reading LNs under SVs is especially difficult, and releasing notes based only
on aural cues or straight memory is one of the hardest abilities to possess. There is no
dedicated LNSV pick in the usual mappool, however, as said before, a number of SV picks
intented to be purely SV end in this category, causing frustration to players that hoped to win
the SV pick. Because of this, SV charts used in tournaments shouldn’t be too LN heavy
unless the mappool is big enough (which is a rare case) or the tournament is focusing on
gimmick and antimeta files.

2.4.6. Hybrid tech

Examples of files:
- The Flashbulb - Didj Pvc (Vortex-) [Progressing]
- Venetian Snares - Epidermis [Tribalism]
- Kashiwa Daisuke - April.#02 (Fullerene-) [Catharsis]

Hybrid tech charts are basically tech charts that expand into LN and SV territory,
making them even more technical. They require the highest precision and are the most
chokable charts on which no one feels fully comfortable. Because of their nature, they are
usually on the harder side of the difficulty spectrum; on the other hand, they are rather
scarce. This type of charts sometimes is used as a standalone tech pick, which may upset a
bit the balance of a pool if it also contains meaningful amounts of LNs. With a bigger pool
size, they can also be a second tech pick which is a bit more fair. Either way, charts of this
type are often mapped specifically for a tournament.

2.4.7. Tiebreaker (long hybrid)

Examples of files:
- Taro Hakase - Jounetsu Tairiku (Evening) [banzai!]
- Camellia - GHOST (Gekido-) [Inconspicuous]
- Camellia - Dans la mer de son (Jinjin) [Toaph’s Abyss]

At last, there is the tiebreaker category. A tiebreaker’s job is to test as many aspects
of gameplay as possible so that the overall better player comes victorious. A typical
tiebreaker is long and harder than the rest of the pool. It contains various complex sections
and a diverse spectrum of patterning. It is technically a hybrid, but an enriched and difficult
one. As usual with hybrids, types of patterns should be balanced, and in ideal conditions the
rice:LN:gimmick ratio of the tiebreaker should reflect the ratio of the whole mappool. This is
rarely the case unless the map is specifically crafted for the pool and the song allows it, but if
mapping a tiebreaker chart, this rule should considered by the mapper while creating
patterns to make a chart that will successfully work as a tiebreaker. Another thing to
remember is that memorization SVs don’t work well in this type of maps. Reading SVs or
scroll manipulation works far better, because it requires less preparation. Since a tiebreaker
chart is long and is rarely played, player usually don’t practice it too much. In this case,
putting memorization SVs greatly favours players that put the practice into a tiebreaker. This
is a good thing, but if the memorization aspect is too hard, a player might end up playing the
tiebreaker over and over and learning it just like a SV chart which is not the goal of a
tiebreaker at all. A good tiebreaker should allow the better player to win regardless of their
preparation - the preparation was already tested on gimmick, hybrid and tech picks. Reading
SVs can be learned much more quickly and they test the overall SV proficiency and reading
elasticity of a player. Tiebreaker is present in every mappool.

To help visualize types of charts and patterns mentioned in this section, they have
been gathered in a diagram below. Arrows specify the direct type-subtype relations whereas
punctuated arrows show other crosstype relations. Chart/pattern types which have a
potential to appear in a typical all-rounder mappool have been underlined. Because of the
high amount of chart types, subtypes and relations between them, it may come out as hard
to read. Zoom in for easier reading.
 3. Types of mappools

With the knowledge of various types of maps and patterns that can be included in a
mappol we can now attempt to consciously build a mappool. However, there are numerous
ways to do that, depending on what do we want to achieve. Picking good maps with bad
mappool structure won’t yield good results, as said mappool won’t fulfill its job properly. What
is the type of the tournament? Who are the players participating? Does it revolve around a
certain skill or pattern type? What does it aim to do? What are the charts available? Should
the pool be different from usual ones? Answering these questions helps a great deal in
choosing the right type, upon which proper maps will be picked.

The following types of mappools are either real or possible. Since the tournament
meta has been heavily focused on allroundedness, the same type of mappool has been
extensively used over long periods of time with little modification, neglecting other
possibilities. Changing the official type would be considered a brave move due the current
archetype being considered the norm. Nevertheless, expanding the possible types may
provide better solutions. In this flowchart various types of mappools have been included
(although this is not exhaustive):

The most common type of mappool has been underlined.

3.1. Difficulty scaling

The first discussed variable will be difficulty scaling. There are three way a mappool
can scale: by difficulty (scaling), by complexity (complex) or without scaling (static).

3.1.1. Scaling mappool

A scaling mappool is by far the most intuitive type that has been used almost
exclusively in tournaments. The first mappools start tame and are accessible even to weaker
players, and next rounds feature a steady progression of difficulty, until finals and grand
finals, where only the best players stand a chance of performing well at charts used.
Although their use and structure is highly logical, they have a certain flaw - due to easier
rounds being accessible to everyone, they effectively become an accuracy fest. Because of
this, a weaker but accuracy specializing, decently all-rounded or very consistent player can
knock out a highly skilled player, whose accuracy, consistency or LN/SV abilities are not as
good. In other words, in early rounds every chart is accuracy/consistency based and the
outcome of matches is much more unpredictable, even if there’s a great amount of overall
skill gap between players. A player who keeps great 200 counts and FCs on difficult charts
may lose to a weak, but ratio-specialized player who would stand no chance on anything
outside of his comfort zone. Another side of the coin is that as the difficulty ramps up,
accuracy picks suddenly disappear completely and there is usually no map that can be said
is focused on accuracy - every chart is difficult in its own way. This means that a good player
who’s also a great accuracy player won’t have a chance to showoff his pure skill and gain
edge over an even higher skilled player, who’s weaker in the accuracy department, because
the charts on the mappool level are decided by misscounts and 200 counts and ratio is
almost meaningless. Scaling mappools are a part of a well-established mappool archetype
(refer to underlined types on the graph), yet they are not ideal due to the reasons mentioned
above.

3.1.2. Complex mappool

The complex mappool is a whole different take on how a mappool should progress
like. The name itself may be a bit misleading - every mappool is complex in a degree. The
idea here is that the early rounds start with the most cookie-cutter, basic and typical charts,
that test just a very narrow set of skillsets. For instance, a stamina chart will contain no other
elements than just a basic, monotonous jumpstream. As the tournament progresses, these
picks are getting more and more complex and impure, combining more and more elements
related to them. Following the example, the high-level jumpstream pick would contain much
more diverse spectrum of stamina patterning, with possible more varied rhythms or speeds.
This causes players to feel more unstable on the charts, requiring more all-roundedness in
the scope of a given skill in order to be able to deal with the pick. These picks should
however still be relatively pure in terms of other skill branches, as they are not hybrid picks.
It is important to note though that the difficulty of the pool is not scaled like in the previous
pool - it is more or less constant throughout the tournament. Because of this, this type pairs
well with Spectrum or Divergent subtypes of Difficulty Range which will be analyzed later.
Complex mappools do not face the problem of accuracy scaling. Despite of this, they meet
their own problems - judging the “complexity” of a given pick is very subjective and
differences between rounds will be much smaller than in the case of a scaling mappool. This
approach also needs more targeted charting and finding maps which satisfy the structure
criteria, especially during the later rounds, may be very difficult. The Complex type has never
been used in a tournament as well, so it would also be an experiment to introduce this type
into a meaningful tournament.

3.1.3. Static mappool

The last type of progression is no progression at all - Static mappools are roughly the
same every round. They are equally well paired with each type of Difficulty Range subtypes,
as a Static mappool heavily depends on its context. In general, this subtype is not used in a
strict tournament play, but it can be used in a system resembling a “league”, where a new
mappool is released periodically and players gather points for setting scores on it. Each
league would require a different level of Static mappool.
 3.2. Difficulty range

The next variable is difficulty range - the skill area which a given mappool tests. It can
be either very narrow or very diverse. There are three types of difficulty range: Leveled,
Spectrum and Divergent.

3.2.1. Leveled mappool

Leveled mappools are the most common type of mappools. Every chart used is
roughly at the same level of difficulty, meaning that a hypothetical allrounder proficient at a
given level can play every map of the pool at a similar level. This naturally pairs Leveled
mappools with Scaling mappools, although Static can also work. Leveled pools face the
accuracy bias problem mentioned earlier, where first rounds all consist of easy, accuracy
charts and later rounds consist of hard, raw skill charts without a typical accuracy-based
pick. Overall though they do a nice job of ensuring everyone can feel comfortable on at least
one mappool, which allows more players to join. As said before, Leveled pools are perhaps
the only broadly used pools.

3.2.2. Spectrum mappool

Spectrum mappools are the opposite of Leveled - they contain maps of various
difficulty levels, which cover a broad spectrum. This type of structure changes a lot in the
way the tournament is played. Because there is no set level for each round, most of the
players will either find charts that are very easy and very hard for them, even in terms of
even passing. Depending on the broadness of the spectrum, both v1 SS’es and fails may
occur. In the end, a Spectrum mappool extrapolates both the strengths and weaknesses of a
player. Weak players will pick only the simpler charts they can get good accuracy on and
strong players will easily outpick the opponent by picking a chart above their reach. This
might result in a tiebreaker if the weaker player is able to hold his ground on the easy picks;
tiebreaker will be somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, so theoretically it would favor
the better player. However, since generally this duality is not as desirable, Spectrum pools
should have a solid middle-ground with a Constraining pool so that it’s not possible to pick
only easy or hard maps all the time. Because of their nature, it’s crucial to ensure the
spectrum is chosen well. Although it’s well paired with Complex mappools, Scaling Spectrum
is also a good option, so that in early rounds the high end will not be as demolishing for
either player, and in the final rounds the charts will not be laughably easy. Another important
factor is the size of the pool, as involving a spectrum of every map type will result in a very
big pool. This can be solved by using a Unconstraining Allround structure, but in general
Spectrum pools are a much better option for non-Allround tournaments, where less pick
categories make a Spectrum viable. Because of how broad a Spectrum is, they are always a
Mixed type in terms of Aim - some maps are focused on consistency and FCs, while others
can be a struggle to pass. This structure also has a big impact on general tournament
experience, as while it favours the better player (which is something a tournament should
generally do), it makes players’ picks very predictable. Usually this also means that the
match result will be more predictable, as a significantly better raw-skill player will be
guaranteed at least a tiebreaker. Whether this is a desired effect depends on the tournament
host and goal - do they strive to make the tournament as fair as possible, or as exciting as
possible? In general, Spectrum mappool structure is largely an uncharted territory which
might be very interesting if implemented correctly. This however requires a lot of work to pull
off.

3.2.3. Divergent mappool

A Divergent mappool combines two previous types and can be described as two or
three levels of charts going in one pool at the same time. This is handled as the "Lower" and
"Upper" Division of the pool, with the "Middle" ground also able to appear. This mixture joins
the steadiness of Leveled subtype with the possibilities of Spectrum which allow each round
to contain both easy and hard files, yet in a more controlled, graspable way. One of the ways
such a pool can be built is that the lower section consists of charts one level below the
current Scaling mappool level, and the upper segment contains charts one level harder. The
middle can be filled with a hybrid, SVs (since gimmick charts don't scale as linearly as other
types of maps) and tiebreaker, as well as other basic types if the pool size allows it.
Generally though if one is to use a Constraining mappool, it needs to have its pick category
numbers reduced so that a double (or triple) coverage of each type doesn't end in a mappool
too big. Unconstraining size may also work, but due to high chances of tiebreaker happening
(one side picks lower side and the other picks upper) there should be a pick limit that clearly
disallows more than certain amount of maps from a given part picked by one player. In
general though, a well devised Divergent Scaling mappool can be very promising in a
tournament meta - although it's more difficult to do than a standard Leveled Scaling
archetype. An important thing to note is that Lower and Upper Division do not have to be of
the same size - Higher Division should be slightly bigger due to a bigger diversification of
chart types as well as giving fair bias to a stronger player.

3.3. Mods

The usage of mods in a mappool can further impact its structure, namely broaden
possible pick types and provide more opportunities for players to shine on. There are three
possibilities - Nomod, Static mod and Freemod.

3.3.1. Nomod

The easiest situation is where all charts are played without any meaningful mods
(such as HardRock or DoubleTime). It is frequently used not without reason - it's easy to
handle, balance and still effective. In a Nomod pool emphasis is put on the picks themselves
satisfying various difficulty and skill requirements without the further aid of mods. However,
due to occuring issues when looking to balance certain categories which do not have
suitable charts to be picked, implementing some mod elements could come in handy.
 3.3.2. Static mod

The next subtype tries to resolve the issue the previous one faces while also adding
a lot of flavor to the table (while, as usual, being more difficult to pull off properly). Static mod
mappools contain both Nomod maps and other maps that can be played only with a given
mod (notably HardRock and DoubleTime). Visual mods such as Hidden and FlashLight are
not suitable for competitive play outside of gimmick charts, and even there they highly favour
certain skin elements and reading habits a player has little control on (for example, bar/arrow
skins or default place where a player looks when playing). HardRock category provides
players with harsher accuracy quota, making it exceptional for accuracy, technical and LN
release picks, while DoubleTime can help in populating the Speed and Technical files (the
former are rarely suitable though since a lot of jack and stamina difficulty is generated along
the way). Although these charts can be randomly picked with mods without a clear mod
structure to satisfy the present mappool needs (and it is an idea to consider with the current
mappool meta) or balance LN charts with OD0, a more refined approach is to come up with
static HR and possibly DT pools. A Divergent Scaling mappool is probably the best
benefitient of Static Mod structure as it can result in the lower part of the pool actually
requiring HR to play, further enhancing the accuracy and precision component and being a
stronger counterbalance to difficult nomod charts. This being said, Static mod is used widely
in osu!standard but ignored completely in osu!mania. Despite of this, it's a perfectly viable
augment of the mappool, and a Divergent Scaling Static mod pool looks promising.

3.3.2. Freemod

Freemod pools are the only nonmeta subtype that has ever been experimented with
in an official tournament and even then they have been only 2 Freemod charts. The idea
here is that players who feel proficient enough can capitalize on that by choosing HardRock
(and in 4K MWC 2016, FadeIn on FlashLight) which results in a score multiplier. The
proposed Freemod bracket (which could even be extended for the whole mappool) would
actually only consider HardRock and be the high-risk, high-reward method which could give
certain players an edge, but also destroying their win chances should they tank their
accuracy significantly. A static Freemod would however be difficult to fit into a pool structure,
with possible workaround of it being valid for Tech, Accuracy or LN Release based
categories. It can also be a non-compulsory way of how a Divergent Scaling mappool could
work, with easier picks being possible to HR. Other mods such as DT, FL, HD or FI aren't
desired due to obvious reasons.

3.4. Size

Sizes of mappools vary and have a big impact on player performance, with big pools
giving potentially a bigger pool of maps to choose and gain points from. Considering the
amount of wins needed is at most 7-8, if both players have at least 7 picks, the match will
easily go to tiebreaker. This is not a desired situation as players should have to go outside of
their comfort zone and win opponent’s picks as well in order to win the match and size
alongside with structure are major components to that. There are three basic types of
mappools based on size: Constrained, Unconstrained and Batch.

3.4.1. Constraining mappool

Constraining pools are probably the only type used in common osu!mania
tournaments and the reason for this is very simple - they are sensible, easy to understand,
complement the nature of common all-rounded tournaments very well and are relatively easy
to make. A Constraining mappool heavily limits player’s choices by providing a just-enough
number of maps available - in the case of a tiebreaker happening, usually only 1 or even no
maps are left unpicked in the pool (bans included). Because of this, a player needs to train
all maps, especially if the match is predicted to be close, since a vast majority of charts
picked will be played. This also causes many picks to be forced and more or less
predictable, as there are less and less maps to choose from. While very effective,
Constraining pools do not work well in cases of pool types such as Spectrum, or if an even
higher degree of map type coverage is desired, as practically do not go over 17 maps and
the most common pool types are between 9 and 15 maps anyway. This is also the reason
other mappool subtypes aren’t very common - they would require going outside of the
Constraining type which is considered a risky thing to do. Usually, a bigger amount of maps
left unpicked even during a long match is considered a flaw of the mappool, which is not
necessarily true, unless this was not planned in the first place.

3.4.2. Unconstraining mappool

Unconstraining pools contain visibly more charts in the pool than the amount that is
possible to be played during a match. They offer a much higher variety of maps to choose
from, which has obvious consequences. For instance, a player is much more likely to find a
pick that suits him more than the opponent, which increases his chances of getting at least
some points. Since this is also true for his opponent, this can lead to a tiebreaker. That
situation can even result in straight away ignoring opponent’s pick and focusing on winning
only your own and the tiebreaker, since practising the entirety of a bigger mappool might be
troublesome. Furthermore, it is also more difficult and time-consuming to create and
balance. So why is it a thing? Unconstraining pools need to be constructed carefully and
have their own purpose. They require a different structure than the basic Leveled Scaling
pool to function properly, and pair well with Spectrum, Divergent and Static Mod pools. Since
multiple difficulty levels are forced in these pools, the mappool must be Unconstraining to
make it possible. However, this causes the problems mentioned above. The solution is to
divide the Unconstraining pool into parts grouped by difficulty and/or map type, and no single
part alone can be enough to get one of the players to the tiebreaker. This ensures that
weaker players will have to beat the other players on a harder pick, LN players will need to
win rice charts regardless of their difficulty and so on. Players will no longer be hard-forced
into some picks even if the match is very close, and will still have more options left in every
situation. Another side of the coin is that for this approach to work, map types will need to be
more general, so that no map type can force a Tiebreaker. This is difficult to achieve with
smaller amounts of wins needed, so these charts should either test general prowess or the
rounds should be at least Best of 11+ in all cases. The mappicking problems still technically
remain, although with a proper pool division and picking less sophisticated maps (that still
work!) the process of mappooling can be way less troublesome than it sounds. The
Unconstraining subtype is still a possible experiment though, and while it has many possible
flaws, they can be more or less dealt with, and it also enables other interesting forms of
tournament experience.

3.4.3. Batch mappool

The last mappool type is clearly different from two others, although it shares a
number of similarities with Unconstraining mappools. A Batch mappool consists of a big,
static selection of charts, of which players can pick whatever they want. That selection is
usually linked with the game’s difficulty system. These pools exist (or can easily exist) mostly
outside of osu!mania. Some examples that help to clarify the essence of this subtype would
be the entirety of In The Groove packs in an ITG tournament, a difficulty range of BMS
Insane Scale (let’s say SP10-SP13) for a round of a BMS tourney, a level range of Lv.60-80
for O2Jam tournament, some arbitrary speed packs for an Etterna tournament or 5,5*-6*
maps for osu! cup (although the last example is silly due to a faulty difficulty calculation
system). These “batches” of charts are so big that they cannot really be trained well in a
short time. On the other hand, these chart pools are usually very well known in the player
community and pools are known (or predicted) way before the tournament even starts. This
is why tourneys using Batch mappools are not only testing a player’s raw skill, but also his
game knowledge and are a brilliant showdown of tactics, knowing one’s strengths and
weaknesses as well as chart knowledge itself, mastering certain picks and being at least
decently prepared for everything the opponent can pick. It’s also important to note that
all-rounded Batch mappools practically do not exist, as certain chart environments or packs
almost always revolve around a certain chart type. Batch pools are thus not ideal for a
common osu!mania tournament gameplay, though they could very well find its use in rice- or
LN-focused cups with clearly defined audience (for example 7K BMS converts). It is also
good if charts included in these batches are each slightly different from each other so that no
chart type is dominant and counterplay exists.

3.5 Aim

The aim of a mappool is usually congruent with the aim of a tourney. This is tackled
from the perspective of the expected player performance on a given mappool and emphasis
on a certain score range. Due to this, a mappool can be either focused on Consistency,
Difficulty or both.

3.5.1. Consistency mappool

This subtype is the most common and has been used in all major tournaments.
Consistency pools are made with consistency and FCs or high scores in mind. Obviously,
different players will play these maps differently and while one of them can SS the chart, the
other will struggle with getting a S rank. Overall though, the difficulty level is averagely
constructed so that most of the time both players will perform at least 900K scores if they
feel comfortable on the pool and, especially in the earlier rounds, they will often fight for full
combo. Consistency mappool focuses on testing things such as dealing with tournament
stress, skill stability and being able to keep the good accuracy as tournament goes on. Since
often a player who misses loses the pick, these tournaments are both more unpredictable
and more exciting to watch. While this is a good thing, sometimes it can feel unfair as many
highly skilled players do not focus on the consistency aspect, allowing them to pull off crazy
scores on certain charts but at the same time they may lose to a weaker player who's well
trained in consistency and/or deals better with performing under stress. The question then
emerges - who is a better player then? Did the "stronger" player lose solely because how the
mappool is constructed? This dilemma is reversed in the next subtype, yet usually the
Consistency mappool feels like a better option as it's more stable and safe, and it is used
widely in various tourneys.

3.5.2. Difficulty mappool

The opposite of Consistency, the Difficulty mappools test the extreme limits of player
strength and do not focus on getting high scores, but rather on being able to keep up with
the difficulty the pool throws at you. While FCs may appear, especially in the early stages,
they are done only by top players, and generally most players will fight for the S rank, having
scores in the 90-95% range, or even struggle with passing. The idea of the mappool is
simple - to make the strictly better player win, with a much smaller luck component allowed.
This makes the outcome of the matches much more predictable and less exciting. This
tradeoff is sometimes desirable, but it entirely depends on what was the goal of the
tournament to begin with - should it be as close and exciting as possible, or focus on picking
the best player at all costs? Difficulty mappools are harder to make since their picks become
very obnoxious and demanding very fast, the quality of faster charts is worse and it’s hard to
judge whether a given pick is a right one. This means that Difficulty mappools are working
better when paired with Static Mod pools due to increased picking possibilities. They aren’t
used often since Consistency pools are easier to use, more inclusive to players of all skill
levels, more known and player-friendly as Difficulty pools are extremely stamina-taxing and
difficult to train. They are however a good, or even better choice for high-end tournaments
catering to the best players in a given area.

3.5.3. Mixed mappool

A Mixed mappool is the byproduct of Spectrum and Divergent types as they focus on
more than one difficulty level at the same time. Therefore, it’s possible to include charts that
are focused either on Consistency or Difficulty, resulting in a Mixed mappool. Its merits have
been discussed earlier in Spectrum and Divergent sections. This approach seems to work
fairy well, balancing the difficulty between too easy and too hard, although this change of the
mappool needs extra steps to succeed. Mixed mappools aren’t really used in their pure form,
although there are some cases in which within the pool there were maps which were
noticeably easier and harder than the rest of it.
 3.6. Chart type

The last proposed classification of mappools stems from the fact that different
tournaments focus on different aspects of gameplay. While seemingly too specific and
obvious, this division helps to understand the effect of having more picks dedicated to a
given category. There are four possible mappools in regard to chart types: All-rounded, Rice,
LN and Gimmick.

3.6.1. All-rounded mappool

The bread and butter of all of the biggest tournaments, All-rounded mappools are
very common and well-established in the community. They contain maps of various types to
test a player’s elasticity and multiple skills. However, since some skills are more frequent or
important than others, in a proper All-rounded mappool the proportions between respective
picks need to be carefully balanced to avoid bias while conserving relevance. In addition to
that, not every type of skill must be included since this may further blur the line between
inclusiveness and relevance. Just because a certain skill exists doesn’t mean it is worthy of
using a mappool slot just to satisfy it, especially if there are barely pickable maps featuring
said skill. Furthermore, a strong and overally well-rounded player may lose if his opponent
somehow succeeds on strongly off-meta and largely irrelevant picks that do not accurately
display a player’s generall prowess at the game (a good example of that would be
disproportionate amounts of SV, vibro and uncomfortable/random releases). A typical
All-rounded mappool contains speed, jack, jumpstream, consistency, technical, LN release,
LN consistency, LN stream, SV memorization, SV reading picks as well as various hybrids.
The proportions of these charts differ in regards to the current mappool phase but in general,
rice picks should be the biggest group of charts. All in all, All-rounded mappools are the
basis of modern tournament metagame, but they need careful balancing to be working
properly.

3.6.2. Rice mappool

Rice pools are somewhat rare in today's meta dominated by allroundedness,

although they were the only type of pools used in early days of osu!mania. They were very
sloppy and chaotic though, and there haven't been many (if any at all) fresher renditions of
this subtype. Rice is the most important and diverse type of patterning, but All-rounded
mappools can cover only a portion of it due to limited pool sizes and presence of LN,
gimmick and Hybrid picks. A purely Rice mappool brings a lot of flavor into the table,
allowing for much more diverse rice subtypes filling the vacancies made by other types. Rice
pools allow secondary rice skills to be included - more diverse stamina patterning, more
extreme jacks, speed files and even vibro. It also makes (as is the case with all
non-All-rounded pools) Spectrum and Divergent pools much more viable, even within the
Constraining size. Inclusion of both easier and harder picks (or even hard and hardcore, in
Difficulty mappools) can drastically change the way a mappool is played.
 3.6.3. LN mappool

A LN mappool is analogical to a Rice mappool, however there are fewer types of LN

maps than rice maps. Due to this, a LN mappool can further explore various types of LNs,
mix in HR for higher release challenge, play with various difficulty levels as well as employ
various hybrids with a significant LN element. In general though, a Constraining mappool
should fully satisfy the requirements.

3.6.4. Gimmick mappool

A fully Gimmick mappool is somewhat of an anomaly - there are little gimmick charts
available, not many different aspects of them and every map is basically a gimmick on its
own. How could a Gimmick mappool work? It could be a specific, small type of mappool that
would work similarly to how other pools function, but in reality this wouldn’t be such a good
idea. A Gimmick mappool can work properly with sightreading in mind, meaning that the
maps used would have to be made specifically for the tournament. This would, of course,
cause the pools to be small. However, a sightreading tourney is an idea that has been
around for quite some time and it is definitely possible to happen, as the ability to perform
well on sightread is linked with understanding how the map is constructed on the go, which
means that players who can get good sightread scores have a much better SV prediction
ability and understanding than others.

4. Examples of mappools

This section will list some possible mappool structures along with their proportions.
Pros and cons of each build will be discussed alongside with its uses and possible
improvements. Note that this section has a more subjective approach, as it will contain
various opinions about how a proper mappool should and shouldn’t look like. Each example
mappool will be of Semifinals difficulty (Best of 11 - 6 wins). The mappools will be analyzed
up to Best of 13 (7 wins). Mappool types that do not present a major difficulty in terms of
mappool structure and instead include gimmicks in scaling (like Complex Mappool) will not
be deeply analyzed.

4.1. Basic Tournament Mappool

Scaling, Leveled, Nomod, Constraining, Consistency, All-rounded

The basic tournament mappool is the one used in all major tournaments. It has a few
different variants based on proportions of certain picks. It is simple and effective, though it
runs into the aforementioned "accuracy" problem.
 Mappool structure:

Best of 7, 4 wins Best of 9, 5 Best of 11, 6 Best of 13, 7

wins wins wins

1. SV Reading SV Reading SV Reading SV Reading

(+Scroll (+Scroll (+Scroll (+Scroll
Manipulation) Manipulation) Manipulation) Manipulation)

2. SV Memorization SV Memorization SV Memorization SV Memorization

3. Speed Speed (stream) Speed (stream) Speed (stream)

4. Accuracy/ Jack (chordjack)/ Jack (chordjack) Speed

Consistency Consistency (rolly)/Longjack

5. Jumpstream Jumpstream Jumpstream Jack (chordjack)

(dense) (dense)

6. Tech Jumpstream Jumpstream (fast) Jumpstream

(fast) (dense)

7. Hybrid Tech Tech Jumpstream

(fast)

8. LN Release Hybrid Hybrid (Rice Tech

emphasis)/ (speed/minijack)
Longjack

9. LN Mixed LN Release Hybrid (LN Hybrid (Rice

emphasis) emphasis)

10. Tiebreaker LN Mixed LN Inverse/Tech Hybrid (LN

hybrid emphasis)

11. LN Stream LN Release/LN SV Hybrid/Tech

Tech hybrid

12. Tiebreaker LN Mixed LN Tech

13. LN Stream LN Mixed

14. Tiebreaker LN Stream

15. LN Inverse

16. Tiebreaker
Best of 7, 4 wins:
- Jack pick changed to Accuracy pick
- Jumpstream pick is usually generic
- LN Mixed is often an easier and longer “LN Consistency” pick
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 4:2:2:1

Best of 9, 5 wins:
- Jack pick possible, but not guaranteed (changed for Consistency pick)
- Second jumpstream pick, division between jumpstream speed and stamina
- LN Stream added
- LN Mixed is often an easier and longer “LN Consistency” pick
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 5:3:2:1

Best of 11, 6 wins:

- Proper Jack pick
- Added a second Tech and/or Hybrid pick, both possibly with a higher LN or even SV
element
- Possible Longjack pick in place of Hybrid (Rice emphasis)
- LN Tech or LN Release pick depending on mappicker’s decision and available maps
- Tech hybrid or LN inverse pick is introduced (depending on mappooler’s decision)
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 5:3:2:3 or 6:4:2:1

Best of 13, 7 wins

- Added a second Speed pick, dividing them into very fast rolly streams and more
jumpstream/tech oriented speed streams or bursts OR a Longjack pick
- Two Technical picks, one purely focused on rice (mostly fastjack, minijack or bursts)
and another is more Hybrid-like (or even SV-heavy)
- Added SV Hybrid, which is often the most obnoxious and disliked pick of the
mappool, this pick can be switched for Scroll Manipulation although it is not
recommended
- Proper LN Tech pick
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 6:4:2:3

The mappool described has many different variants, depending on mappicker’s ideas
and general mappool availability. Note that this is not the ideal nor proposed mappool
structure, but the one widely used in tournaments. The Basic Tournament Mappool has two
variants: LN-biased variant with higher amount of LN picks (most notably executed as a
higher quantity of LN Hybrids and LN impurities in non-LN charts) and Rice-biased variant
with excess LN/hybrid picks being swapped for Jack picks. There are also possible changes
in the SV department, with SV Reading being interchangeable with Scroll Manipulation (it
usually involves both). In a Grand Finals mappool 3 Gimmick picks can also happen,
although this throws off the balance of the pool.
Pros:
+ Well established, easy to use and widely accepted mappool structure
+ Lots of flexibility
+ Inclusiveness for every skill level
+ Often close matches, good to watch

Cons:
- Accuracy problem
- Top level rice players can lose to much weaker opponents if they lose on LN, SV
picks (LN players are usually greatly favoured in contrast to Rice players)
- Top level players that do not focus on consistency/deal with stress can lose to much
weaker, but consistency-oriented players
- Maps picked might be unpleasant and frustrating to play (mostly concerning
Tech/Hybrid picks)
- Many players are discouraged by the high amounts of non-rice picks
- Much effort needed to find decent picks (mostly but not exclusively concerning SV),
resulting in a need to map substantial amounts of charts specifically for a tournament
- Difficult to balance and precisely define each pick

The Basic Tournament Mappool is a generally effective, but non-flawless choice. It’s
popular, easy to understand and standardized, and allows for various modifications if
needed. Tournaments using this structure are known for allowing basically anyone to try their
skills. Because maps are focused on Consistency, the matches are closer and more exciting
as getting a clean score during a match is much harder than just outclassing your opponent
with constant and solid raw skill.

There are also numerous disadvantages of said mappool. The Accuracy Problem
(early rounds are full-accuracy, later rounds are no-accuracy) allows acc mains to easily get
midway of the tournament and then struggle dramatically when the difficulty ramps up;
high-level players may get eliminated very early and in later rounds ratio and even 200 count
differences are vastly outshadowed (or even straight up ignored) by miss counts, whereas in
early round a 200 may make or break the point. Another issue is that said high-level players
who are rice mains (and barely touch LN or SV at all) cannot really win a match, because LN
picks and SV picks are a half of the mappool even considering one of them is banned. In
addition to that, Hybrid and even some Tech picks greatly favor LN players as the LN
element is often more significant than the rest of the chart. If a LN main has decent
consistency and accuracy, he can easily get to the later stages of the tournament even if his
rice skill is lacking, and even if he loses, he will most likely get at least a few points.
Furthermore, especially in the more demanding rounds, maps are so packed with hard,
technical and unpleasant patterning combining Tech, LN and SV, that only a few players
really enjoy playing these charts, even if they’re brilliant from the structural standpoint. This
is unavoidable, but can be partially remedied by simplifying certain chart categories and
having more tolerance in regards to map quality (map complexity). As inclusive as the
tournament is, many good players choose not to participate due to mappools being
overloaded with LN, SV and generally non-standard, frustrating and complex charts.
Because of high standards of the pools as well as sophisticated pick categories, it is hard to
find suitable maps, both because of time needed to actually craft them, as well as due to the
fact that the demand is low and there aren’t many people who play these maps on regular
basis. This causes a lot of the maps, particularly SV maps, to be mapped for a specific
tournament. Other work needed includes making edits or rates for different picks, cleaning
the undesired patterning, although this is much easier to do and is a part of a mappooling
routine.

The last major problem with a Basic Tournament Mappool regards its difficulty
balancing and some pick categories (mostly Tech or Hybrid) being especially vague. The
general issue has been said before - it is very easy to favour LN players and put Rice
players at a serious disadvantage. Even by accident, small amounts of LNs in non-LN maps
can drastically change an outcome of a pick, especially if otherwise superior rice player gets
accidental 200s on random releases (or very short LNs) and loses a rice pick despite having
much better accuracy would said LNs not have been there. The harder issue to fix is the
desired Rice:LN:Gimmick ratio that determines base chances of players that are good at a
particular skillset. There are three possible cases:
- In many older All-rounded pools the ratio is skewed towards non-rice players,
sometimes being as extreme as 40:40:20 or 45:45:10. In no mappool should the
amount of LN picks be equal to the amount of Rice picks as Rice skill is much more
important and prevalent than LN skill.
- In more modern pools the ratio is around 50:40:10 or 50:35:15. This causes the Rice
pick number to equal the LN + SV pick numbers. This is considered by many the
ideal proportion since it is based on the notion that a full Rice player shouldn’t be
able to win if he cannot win any of the LN and SV picks. A player who wins all LN and
SV picks is guaranteed the Tiebreaker. A LN player who cannot deal well with SV will
have a harder time and will need to win Rice picks to hold his ground.
- The idea that Rice is more important than other two types of skills is supported in this
paper and a ratio of 55:35:10, 60:30:10 or 60:35:5 is suggested. This stems from the
fact that Rice forms a vast majority of charts generally played and available and it is
the foundation of what is commonly referred to as “raw skill”. Therefore, if a player
can cleanly win all of the Rice picks, he deserves a win as he has shown his
dominance in the most important aspect of the gameplay, even if the mappool is said
to be “All-rounded”. Since Rice picks are so diverse, being able to excel at all of them
is not an easy thing to do. On the other hand, a player specializing in LN and SV
cannot take the match to Tiebreaker by winning all of his picks - he has to win at least
one Rice pick (even if that’s an easy accuracy pick) to be able to do so.

While these ratios are counting only relative difficulty numbers of the pool, it is crucial
to remember about the Hybrid picks that are basically “half-picks” into their corresponding
categories (if they are not overly biased). This greatly complexifies the situation as winning
“all Rice” now also means winning the Hybrid pick, which further provides the LN or SV
player an edge needed to get the desired break point. Conversely, in a Rice=LN+SV
scenario, a LN player will need to win all LN, all SV and a Hybrid pick to reach the
Tiebreaker.
 With these aspects in mind, here is the updated version of the Basic Tournament
Mappool.

4.2. Modified Basic Tournament Mappool

Scaling, Leveled, Nomod/Static Mod, Constraining, Consistency,
All-rounded

This modified version features a different ratio of picks, having only 1 SV pick at all
mappools (also featuring a SV element in certain Hybrid picks) as well as a dedicated
Accuracy pick and balanced Hybrid structure.

Mappool structure:

Best of 7, 4 wins Best of 9, 5 Best of 11, 6 Best of 13, 7

wins wins wins

1. SV Mixed SV Mixed SV Mixed SV Mixed

2. Accuracy/ Accuracy/ Accuracy/ Accuracy/

Consistency Consistency Consistency Consistency
(+HR) (+HR) (+HR) (+HR)

3. Jumpstream Speed (stream) Speed (stream) Speed (rolly)

4. Tech Jumpstream Jack (chordjack) Speed

(dense) (jumpstream)

5. Speed Jumpstream Jumpstream Jack (dense

(fast) (dense) chordjack
+longjack)

6. Hybrid (Rice Tech Jumpstream (fast) Jack (fast

emphasis) chordjack)

7. Hybrid (LN Hybrid (Rice Tech Handstream

emphasis) emphasis)

8. LN Release Hybrid (LN Hybrid (Rice Tech

(+HR) emphasis) emphasis) (speed/minijack)

9. LN Mixed LN Release Hybrid (LN Hybrid (Rice

(+HR) emphasis) emphasis

10. Tiebreaker LN Mixed LN Inverse Hybrid (LN

emphasis)

11. LN Stream LN Release/LN SV Hybrid/Tech

Tech hybrid
 (+HR)

12. Tiebreaker LN Mixed LN Tech

(+HR)

13. LN Stream LN Mixed

14. Tiebreaker LN Stream

15. LN Inverse

16. Tiebreaker

Best of 7, 4 wins:
- Accuracy and Release picks can be Nomod, Forced HR on Accuracy, or both Forced
HR. Accuracy pick is visibly easier than the rest of the pool.
- Two hybrid picks, LN and Rice oriented; they can very well just be general Hybrid
and Hybrid Tech instead
- Jumpstream pick is usually generic
- LN Mixed is often an easier and longer “LN Consistency” pick
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 4:2:1:2

Best of 9, 5 wins:
- Accuracy pick focused on both 1/2 and 1/4 accuracy, low difficulty
- No jack pick - it would become another Accuracy pick instead
- Second jumpstream pick, division between jumpstream speed and stamina
- LN Stream added
- LN Mixed is often an easier and longer “LN Consistency” pick
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 5:3:1:2

Best of 11, 6 wins:

- Proper Jack pick
- LN Inverse is introduced
- LN Tech or LN Release pick depending on mappicker’s decision and available maps
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 6:4:1:2

Best of 13, 7 wins

- Rolly Speed pick, fast Jumpstream merged with Speed jumpstream category for a
second Speed pick
- Two Jack picks, one containing chordjacks AND longjacks, another focused on
fastjacks
- Added SV Hybrid which is interchangeable with Tech (hybrid), which is basically tech
with LN and possibly SV elements
- Proper LN Tech pick
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 7:4:1:3
 This version of the pool is slightly skewed towards Rice players, forcing non-Rice
mains to win at least one Rice pick (Accuracy pick is included in this category). Only one SV
pick allows for an additional slot to be filled with a desired map, and it is possible to ban out
SV entirely. While this might be controversial at first, it is also true for most of other
categories. This structure puts SV in place as the “novelty” category and puts more
emphasis on more solid and reliable skills such as LN and Rice. Hybrid picks can of course
also contain some SV elements which may be semi-meaningful. Accuracy and Release
picks are possible to be put on HR, increasing their sharpness; Release picks on HR need to
be used with care though as it is difficult to preserve consistent HR pool sizes (unless HR is
used only when needed and not of static size). HR can also be used to partially negate some
of the OD0 maps.

Pros:
+ Partially solves the accuracy problem
+ Better representation and weighing of different skills
+ Inclusiveness for every skill level
+ More fair towards non-LN players

Cons:
- Only 1 SV pick might be controversial
- Top level players that do not focus on consistency/deal with stress can lose to much
weaker, but consistency-oriented players
- Maps picked might be unpleasant and frustrating to play (mostly concerning
Tech/Hybrid picks)
- Much effort still needed to find decent picks, resulting in a need to map substantial
amounts of charts specifically for a tournament
- Less emphasis on training the mappool, slightly more one-sided matches
- Less flexible pools (rice easy to overweigh), though Hybrid picks allow some freeway

This mappool structure is complementary to Basic Tournament Mappool and solves a

portion of its flaws, but it also generates some more (which are more subjective). The
preferred mappool choice depends entirely on the view of how a tournament should look
like. The argumentation for either of them has been included earlier. This structure is still
limited by the fact that it is Leveled.

4.3. Forked Tournament Mappool

Scaling, Divergent, Nomod/Static Mod, Unconstraining, Mixed,
All-rounded

The Forked Tournament Mappool is a new and experimental approach, featuring

bigger Mappool Sizes which cover two or three rounds of the “Basic Tournament Mappool” at
the same time. This results in more vast difficulty gap inside of a pool. Picks can be
categorized as Lower or Upper Division, with Hybrid, SV and Tiebreaker lying in the Middle
Division. To ensure balance, only (n-2) maps of a given Division may be picked by one
player, where n stands for amount of maps won needed to win a match (in Bo9, a player can
pick only 3 maps from a given division).
 Mappool structure:

Best of 7, 4 wins Best of 9, 5 Best of 11, 6 wins Best of 13, 7 wins

wins

Lower Division (+HR)

1. Accuracy 1. Jumpstream 1. Jumpstream 1. Jumpstream

(simple)

2. Accuracy 2. Tech 2. Tech 2. Tech

(tech)

3. Accuracy (LN) 3. Hybrid 3. Speed 3. Speed

4. Accuracy 4. LN Release 4. Hybrid 4. Hybrid

(Hybrid)

5. LN Mixed 5. LN Release 5. LN Release

6. LN Mixed 6. LN Mixed

7. LN Stream

Middle Division

5. Hybrid 6. Hybrid 7. Hybrid (Rice 8. Hybrid (Rice

emphasis) emphasis)

6. SV Mixed 7. SV Mixed 8. Hybrid (LN 9. Hybrid (LN

emphasis) emphasis)

7. Tiebreaker 8. Tiebreaker 9. SV Mixed 10. SV Hybrid/Hybrid

tech*

10. Tiebreaker 11. SV Mixed

12. Tiebreaker

Upper Division

8. Jumpstream 9. Jumpstream 11. Jumpstream 13. Handstream

(dense) (dense) (dense)

9. Speed 10. Jumpstream 12. Speed JS 14. Speed JS

(fast)

10. Jack 11. Speed 13. Speed (rolly) 15. Speed (rolly)

11. Tech 12. Jack 13. Jack (dense 16. Jack (dense
(chordjack) chordjack+longjack) Achordjack+longjack)
 12. LN Release 13. Tech 14. Jack (fastjack) 17. Jack (fastjack)

13. LN Mixed 14. LN Release 15. Tech 18. Tech

15. LN Stream 16. LN Release 19. Rice hybrid

16. LN Mixed 17. LN Stream 20. LN Release

18. LN Mixed 21. LN Stream

19. LN Inverse 22. LN Mixed

23. LN Inverse
*optional

Best of 7, 4 wins:
- All Lower Division picks are based on Accuracy
- An easy Hybrid pick in Lower Division
- Upper Division’s Jumpstream pick is mixed
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 6:3:1:2
- Lower:Middle:Upper Division ratio: 4:3:6

Best of 9, 5 wins:
- Proper differentiation of Lower Division picks
- No Speed pick for Lower Division, since Jumpstream and Tech fill the main “rice
accuracy” role well enough
- Two standard types of Jumpstream files
- LN Stream added
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 7:5:1:2
- Lower:Middle:Upper Division ratio: 5:3:8

Best of 11, 6 wins:

- A Speed pick added for Lower Division
- Hybrid divided into LN and Rice emphasis (similar to pool 4.2.)
- Speed JS pick linking the Jumpstream (fast) and Speed (stream) categories in Upper
Division, pure Speed (rolly) added
- Two Jack picks, slow and dense control chordjacking with possible longjacks as well
as faster chordjack/fastjack pick
- LN Inverse pick added
- Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 9:6:1:3
- Lower:Middle:Upper Division ratio: 6:4:10

Best of 13, 7 wins

- LN Stream pick added to Lower Division
- Two or three hybrid picks in Middle Division
- An extra Rice Hybrid added fo Upper Division being the most diverse Rice chart (a
jack+burst Tech can also be used)
 - Rice:LN:SV:Hybrid ratio: 10:7:1:3(4)
- Lower:Middle:Upper Division ratio: 7:4(5):11

The Forked Tournament Mappool is basically a further development of pools that

contain an accuracy element. With its Divergent structure, it provides a broad battleground
for both players who can pick what best suits them. The pick limit ensures that a player is
forced to win pick at least one map outside of his desired Division, unless both players focus
on the same Division. It follows the same idea as a Modified Tournament Mappool - reduced
amount of SV and similar Division substructure. Purely Accuracy picks are not needed, as
there is not a whole Division to cater to players who strive at being accurate.

Pros:
+ Solves the accuracy problem
+ A big variety of chart types and difficulties to choose from, making the mappool a
very all-rounded and fair experience
+ Underdogs have a much harder time to win matches against stronger opponents, yet
both sides can often get some points
+ Very flexible

Cons:
- Only 1 SV pick might be controversial
- Much harder to pick suitable charts due to their sheer amounts; mappool structure
revision might be needed to adjust to lack of proper picks
- Difficult to prepare for; players need to spend high amounts of time training or trust
their raw ability
- The Division limit might be confusing to keep track of for players and referees
- The structure is not as easy to understand and does not change in a static manner
- This structure has never been tested in a real tournament

The structure used in this mappool is a good solution to the accuracy problem - each round
contains a hefty amount of charts focused on consistency and accuracy, and even in the
hardest rounds, where Lower Division is still quite hard, it is easy enough for the best players
to be treated as accuracy. On the other hand, the Upper Divisions scale quickly and can
become challenging even to the top players - in the last pool they’re a level higher than in
the current mappool meta. Because there are so many different maps and the pool is
Unconstraining, every player should find picks he’s comfortable with and has real point
chances. This further adds to the All-rounded character of a tournament. On the other hand,
since a weaker player needs to win all of their allowed Lower Division picks + a potential SV
chart to get to the Tiebreaker, it becomes very hard for weaker acc/consistency players to
get past much better overall, yet not as accurate key smashers. This pool also abides to the
Rice>LN+SV rule, although this can be easily modified. Many of map types used can be
modified (this is especially true for Hybrid picks) and numbers of maps in a mappool can
also be increased or decreased (it can even be made into a Constraining size with enough
effort). In theory, a Forked Tournament Mappool should provide a high-quality experience
and a fair environment to the participants.

There are some disadvantages though. High amounts of charts needed can cause serious
troubles during mappicking, as lack of proper files is already heavily noticed during
construction of Constraining pools. This can be partially remedied by lessening the quality
requirement and focusing on tournament appropriateness, making edits and using more
general map types. Due to the extraordinary size, this type of mappool would be difficult to
prepare for, so players should be counting more on their innate skill rather than being able to
reliably improve their mappool scores over the course of the week - unless they plan to
ignore a portion of picks and focus only on these with a winning chance. The Division limit is
an artificial way to block players from abusing either Division and reaching Tiebreaker
without any risk, however keeping track of it might be difficult both for players and referees
and requires some practice - players who do not care too much about a tourney will certainly
get lost in this rule. The fact that the size of this pool does not increase in a symmetric
manner might also be problematic, but the table shown is probably the most logical way of
unfolding the mappool. As this structure has never been tested in a tourney, it remains
experimental and should be first employed in a non-official event.

4.4. Batch mappool

Scaling, Leveled, Nomod, Batch, Consistency, Rice/LN

A Batch mappool does not require too much effort to create as it only needs certain
boundaries that limit the amount of charts used. It vastly differs in its character from the other
pools. This is a decent option for certain LAN events.

Example mappool: BMS tournament, Davteezy+Doorknob+_underjoy

converts

Group Stage: BMS Lv. 01-04

Round of 16: BMS Lv. 05-09
Quarterfinals: BMS Lv. 10-14
Semifinals: BMS Lv. 15-19
Finals: BMS Lv. 20-22
Grand Finals: BMS Lv. 23+

The details of this type have been included in section 3.4.3. Due to specific nature of a Batch
pool, it is usable in specialized tourneys that do not rely on mappicking and instead just test
a general skill area.

Although Batch pools could be Divergent, Spectrum or Difficulty, it is unpractical.

 4.5. Rice/LN Mappool
Various types

The specialized Rice/LN Mappools used for their respective tournaments can be
done in many ways, including these mentioned earlier. Because of so many structures that
work in this case (except Unconstraining, which might be over the top), only “worthy” chart
types will be discussed here, considering the Constraining Scaling pool size. With
Constraining Divergent or Spectrum pools, multiple “layers” of standard rice picks can be
successfully used.
Since these kinds of mappools are usually rather specialized and high-end, they
might not be accessible to everyone and the starting difficulty might be already pretty high.
Due to this, their development can already start at a pretty high floor, where many types of
charts are well-defined.

a) Rice
Mappool Structure:

Best of 7, 4 wins Best of 9, 5 Best of 11, 6 wins Best of 13, 7 wins

wins

1. Accuracy/ Accuracy/ Accuracy/ Accuracy/

Consistency Consistency Consistency Consistency

2. Speed (rolly) Speed (rolly) Speed (rolly) Speed (rolly)

3. Speed (stream) Speed (stream) Speed (stream) Speed (stream)

4. Jumpstream Handstream Speed (tech) Speed (tech)

(dense) (dense)

5. Jumpstream Jumpstream Jumptrillhandstrea Jumptrillhandstream

(fast) (dense) m

6. Jack (chordjack) Jumpstream Jumpstream/ Jumpstream/

(fast) handstream (dense) handstream (dense)

7. Tech Jack (dense Jumpstream (fast) Jumpstream (fast)

(speed+minijack) chordjack)

8. Tech (accuracy) Jack (fastjack) Jack (koreajack) Jack (koreajack)

9. Rice hybrid Tech Jack (fastjack) Jack (fastjack)

(speed+minijack)

10. Tiebreaker Tech (accuracy) Jack (longjack) Jack

(longjack+chordjack)

11. Rice hybrid Tech Tech

 (speed+minijack) (speed+minijack)

12. Tiebreaker Tech (accuracy) Tech (jack+stream)

13. Rice hybrid Mixed stamina

14. Tiebreaker Vibro

15. Rice hybrid

16. Tiebreaker

b) LN
Mappool Structure:

Best of 7, 4 wins Best of 9, 5 Best of 11, 6 wins Best of 13, 7 wins

wins

1. Accuracy/ Accuracy/ Accuracy/ Accuracy/

Consistency Consistency Consistency Consistency

2. LN Inverse LN Inverse LN Inverse LN Inverse

3. LN Release LN Release LN Release LN Release

4. LN Tech LN Tech LN Tech LN Tech

5. LN Mixed LN Mixed LN Mixed LN Mixed

6. LN Stream LN Stream LN Stream LN Stream

7. Full LN Full LN Full LN Full LN

8. Hybrid (LN Hybrid (LN Hybrid (LN Hybrid (LN

emphasis) emphasis) emphasis) emphasis)

9. LN Coordination LN Coordination LN Coordination LN Coordination

10. Tiebreaker Release Inverse Release Inverse Release Inverse

11. Inverse Inverse Inverse Jumpstream

Jumpstream Jumpstream

12. Tiebreaker LN Speed LN Speed

13. Inverse Jacks Inverse Jacks

14. Tiebreaker Hard LN Mixed

15. Inverse Handstream

 16. Tiebreaker

4.6. Qualifiers

Qualifiers are the special type of an one-round mappool that prefaces the actual
mappool. They consist of a few maps specially made for a given tournament to negate any
bias that could happen from knowing the map beforehand. These maps are played
consecutively two times in a group lobby, with a small break inbetween. Only the best of two
attempts is counted. As qualifiers are meant to be accessible to a broad population of
players, they are usually simple (although not overly so) consistency files broadly tackling a
certain skill. There are a few established categories:
- SV
- Accuracy/tech
- LN
- Raw skill
- Hybrid*

*rarely used

Although these categories are reasonable and cover all of the main skillsets tested in
regular mappools, there is a serious problem in balancing their relevance. In a standard
4-map set, a SV map is a whole 25% of the final score, while being such a novel category.
Raw skill and rice proficiency in general, while taking up the vast majority of all charts
available and having so many subskills has the same impact on the final score as SV.
Accuracy/tech qualifier sometimes is also mixed with small, but significant amounts of
release LNs, which can skew the balance highly towards LN players, who can become
highly overrated in the qualifying process. This is why qualifiers should be as pure as
possible to focus on testing one skill at a time.
Player’s final seed depends on his performance on all qualifiers compared to
performances of other participants. For a long time, score sum system was used which
simply counted the total score achieved on all charts. This caused the SV qualified to be
highly overweighted as score differences were the biggest on it, so big that performance on
Accuracy qualifier was largely irrelevant as a few thousand points differences were nothing
compared to tens of thousands won or lost on SV file. This is why the current system now
counts the average rank on each map so that every qualifier is balanced.
Since qualifiers’ job is to test how well players can tackle the actual mappools, they
should reflect their actual structure. This is not the case with standard qualifiers as
mentioned before due to SV being as meaningful as raw skill or LN. In addition, an Accuracy
qualifier exists while there are no purely Accuracy maps in mappools (aside from early
rounds, which all focus on Accuracy to some degree). Because of this, a new qualifier
structure is proposed which handles the proportions better:
 1. Accuracy/Tech (Jack+Burst)
2. LN
3. Raw skill (Jumpstream+Speed)
4. Hybrid (+SV Reading elements)

In the new qualifier structure, the Accuracy/Tech map would be slightly harder and
more resembling an actual Tech chart, while retaining the visible Accuracy component. LN
qualifier would be largely unchanged, although it is crucial for it to focus on other LN
subskills such as Coordination or Inverse in addition to the classic Inverse. Third qualifier
would focus on Rice difficulty, containing cookie-cutter rice patterning that differs from one
present in Accuracy/Tech qualifier. The last one would be a Hybrid chart which also fulfills
the role of a SV qualifier, although in a much more toned down way, featuring only Reading
SVs. In this structure, the ratio of Rice:LN:SV is much closer to actual mappools while still
preserving key components of player skill.
A question arises - should the qualifiers test player preparation to the tournament in
addition to the pure skill? Removal of the SV qualifier, which is mostly based on
memorization, directly values pure player skill over his willingness and dedication to the
tourney itself. Players that do not care too much about a tournament would have little
chances of getting past qualifiers even with exceptional performance on other charts
because SV would bring them down so much. Many players and tournament staff consider
this a good way of ensuring that competing players take the tournament seriously. While this
is an understandable approach, it still does not sound fair to value SV memorization so much
in qualifiers, while in the mappools memorization is only a minuscule part of the pools and
can be banned anyway. Qualifiers should test a player’s skill, not a player’s memory and/or
amount of time to train and perfect a map. Preparation can also be tested in other ways - by
including patterns in other qualifiers that are very tricky to sightread and utilizing specific
songs with specific rhythms that require players to be at the very least familiar with them. If a
player can outperform his competition even with little practice, that is a proof that he’s more
than worthy to participate in the proper stages of that event. Eliminating him because he did
not learn a map, as unwise as this is from his perspective, blocks the way of a potentially
highly skilled contestant that could ban SVs anyway. This is why a SV qualifier is not the
optimal choice for a standalone qualifier. However, SVs skill can still be tested with the
Hybrid pick that, apart from standard mix of LN and Rice, also contains SV Reading
elements and/or Scroll Manipulation and would require a few plays to get grasp of. This
allows for mainly non-memorization SV skill, which has a more usual and graspable learning
curve, to be present and be taken advantage of, as well as reduces the penalty for players
that can’t deal with Reading SVs properly (even if they practiced the map) or did not train the
mappool, so that their performance is visibly lowered, but still on par with players that did
struggle at other qualifiers without entirely failing at them. SVs being a part of a Hybrid pick
puts them in line and ensures their significance is much more balanced.
 5. Summary

In this work, various aspects of mappool creation were analyzed, including history of
osu!mania mappools, chart types that build a mappool, mappool types and structures. By
defining all of these factors, it is much easier to consciously construct a good and effective
mappool. Aside from that, there are plenty of other, nonmeta types that are yet to be used in
a competitive setting. The process of mappicking consists of creating suitable qualifiers
which filter players who are on a decent level and will be able to withstand the rivalization,
choosing the right mappool archetype, finding decent and appropriate maps that also have
the highest possible quality, mapping/editing certain picks to fill the gaps of the mappool and
ensuring that the difficulty differences inside and between mappools are reasonable and
stable. A great mappicker has a good amount of map knowledge and knows what makes
and breaks a tournament pick. There are many cases in which a chart of a great quality
makes a poor tournament pick and vice-versa. He should also know how certain picks
complement each other, especially if one pick “accidentally” goes outside of its boundaries
and is hard to precisely define and pinpoint its main difficulty. I hope that this paper has
provided a good amount of knowledge and insight into a mappicking process as well as
shown new frontiers and ideas that could be used for future tournaments. While not all of my
points might be fully agreeable with, I intend to spark a discussion that will lead for an
enhanced osu!mania tournament experience for everyone, from both player and mappicker
perspective.