ITG 2-2 Judging Thread

[BLueSS]

ITG Bracket 2-2 Judging Thread
- The scoring from this thread will determine which 3 songs move on to the next round.
- This thread will be locked sometime on Friday morning/afternoon. Get your reviews in before Friday.
- You must pick 1 review method, you can't mix them.
- The entire bracket must be reviewed.
- The list of songs in this bracket are below for reference:

Code: Select all

Chaosmaid - Excel
Disconnected - Yuke
Last Orgasm - Telperion
Muenzuka Set 02 -Oriental Dark Flight- - joe2
Sweet Devil - Nusa
The Birds and the Bees - DjJRun

Thanks to Lisek (and will-i-am for ITG fixes), here are easy to use scoring templates

Option 1 - Complete Review

Code: Select all

[b][b][size=150]Song Title[/size][/b] __ / 25
[color=#0000FF]__ / 10 - Expert[/color]
[color=#FF0000]__ / 10 - Secondary Chart[/color]
[color=#BF8040]__ / 05 - Presentation[/color]
[color=#40BFFF]__ / +/- 01 - Tilt[/color]

Template Song 24 / 25
08 / 10 - Expert
Great fun chart but lacks something. It needs more 1/16th jackhammers.
10 / 10 - Secondary Chart
It's great, nothing to add.
05 / 05 - Presentation
The background is dazzling so much that I lost my eye-sight.
01 / 01 - Tilt
Nice video but I understand that some people may not like it.


Option 2 - Partial Review

Code: Select all

[b][size=150]Song Title[/size][/b] __ / 15
[color=#0000FF]__ / 10 - Expert[/color]
[color=#BF8040]__ / 05 - Presentation[/color]
[color=#40BFFF]__ / 01 - Tilt[/color]

example:
Bad Song 08 / 15
06 / 10 - Expert
Could be better. I thought that this was pad competition thought.
02 / 05 - Presentation
The background is ugly. Comic Sans is so 90's.
00 / 01 - Tilt
No tilt. Leave me alone.


Option 3 - Approval Vote

Code: Select all

[b][size=150]Song Title[/size][/b]

example:
Blue Sad Song
I cried. I cried a lot. It's nice.

Option 1: Complete Review (25 points/song)
- Heavy (10), secondary chart (10), presentation (5), and tilt (±1)
Option 2: Partial Review (15 points/song)
- Heavy (10), presentation (5), and tilt (±1)
Option 3: Approval Vote (5 points/song)
- Typical approval vote style; vote for as many songs as desired, each vote awards equal points (5)

[rikame]

Chaosmaid: 12/15
Expert: 8/10
These steps were pretty good. I liked the patterns and didn't have much in the way of complaints. I do like how you used freezes to accent the vocals though. Not sure that this is a 12 lol
Presentation: 3/5
The graphics could be better. The horizontal blur is nice but the color is a tad plain and doesn't match the background. The artist text is just eh.
Tilt: 1/+-1
Dem vocals


Disconnected: 9/15
Expert: 5/10
The steps need work. The patterns are good and there are good ideas in here but they should be reviewed for doublesteps / awkward steps. Some notes didn't match the sounds in the song and some were made up from non-existant sounds. At many times there could you could have made the steps more interesting with freezes and such. Not a fan of the down-arrow hand either.
Presentation: 4/5
The text is too high/low and should probably be moved a bit to the right. You may want to define the borders a bit more as well. Regardless, this looks nice.
Tilt: 0/+-1


Last Orgasm: 14/15
Expert: 9/10
Footswitches yayyyy. Nice freeze usage, ect. Some of those notes sounded like they matched sounds that weren't quite there but the chart is really fun. Nice work.
Presentation: 5/5
Those graphics are hot. I like.
Tilt: 0/+-1


Muenzuka Set 02: 15/15
Expert: 10/10
I can't say that there's a flaw in this, one of my favorite files of this comp yet. The gimmicks work well, step rhetoric is good, yeah.
Presentation: 5/5
Yep, these are graphics alright. Maybe it's just my screen but the border around the artist text looks distorted (It's probably just my screen :x )
Tilt: 0/+-1
This makes me glad that I didn't throw my House Set Of song into the ring to compete with this.


Sweet Devil: 9/15
Expert: 6/10
You could have done more to accent the sounds (like freeze notes). Also, a few parts didn't always match the instruments/vocals. The streams are alright.
Presentation: 2/5
The movie is cool, but the actual graphics could use some editing. The text (especially in the BG) is so bright. Personally, I would have had purple/blue text with white/black borders. The pure white text with the really large blur doesn't look all that great, honestly :(
The purple in the text is a really nice redeaming quality though.
Tilt: 1/+-1
Despite my feelings about the steps otherwise, the patterns were fairly nice. :)


The Birds and the Bees: 11/15
Expert: 7/10
Really not a fan of this to be honest but you did a good job given what the song offered you, down to the crossovers and hands xD
Presentation: 3/5
The simplicity in these is nice but the border around the title text could be thicker.
Tilt: 1/+-1
You stepped something that most people wouldn't so yeah.

[Valex]

Chaosmaid 21.5 / 25
9 / 10 - Expert
Pretty neat. Only real problem I had was the 8th note section with holds that accented the voice, if only because I'm not sure the voice was straight 8th notes
8.5 / 10 - Secondary Chart
I wish you had used more 16ths and other non-8th notes in this, because there were a lot of offbeat rhythms I would've liked to see follow more closely. Only complaint
4 / 05 - Presentation
Graphics are a bit weak, but pretty good overall
0 / +/- 01 - Tilt
Step better songs and I'd play your shit all the time :P

Disconnected 15 / 25
6.5 / 10 - Hard
Solid and playable, but not amazing. Rhythms were mostly correct, but could have been a bit more exact; patterns were mostly good, but definitely had more room for improvement. Why wasn't this Expert?
6 / 10 - Secondary Chart
Again, don't start on the first beat. It's a 5. I can't muster up thoughts about it, haha
2.5 / 05 - Presentation
I wasn't a fan of your graphics; the gradient makes the top half of the text rather unreadable. In addition, what was the deal with the random BPM changes? The song's a steady 128 BPM, so I'm going to assume that's a cutting error. Even if they need to be there, put in a DISPLAYBPM tag so I don't set my BPM thinking it's 145 BPM.
0 / +/- 01 - Tilt
Solidly OK. Would have put this in the DDR bracket.

Last Orgasm 24 / 25
9.5 / 10 - Expert
This seems like it'd be really hard to step, since you can hear both parts of the song equally and it's really layered. I probably would have done it much differently but your chart looks fun. Really my only problem is the footswitches; I didn't like those at all.
9.5 / 10 - Secondary Chart
This felt very DDR, haha. I would have gotten rid of the 24th drills (but much for a 9) but overall this is pretty qute.
5 / 05 - Presentation
EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL
0 / +/- 01 - Tilt
mmmgurlgiveittomelikedat

Muenzuka Set 02 24 / 25
10 / 10 - Expert
wow . . . animé . . .
nah this is good. Probably the best chart I've seen in the ITG bracket so far
9 / 10 - Secondary Chart
Parts of this seemed a little wonky, and I thought the jacks might have been a bit much for a Hard 9. But overall pretty solid
4 / 05 - Presentation
Graphics are OK, but not amazing; I feel you're capable of better. Doubles is chill 2
1 / +/- 01 - Tilt
good

Sweet Devil 10 / 25
4 / 10 - Expert
This felt more like a (bad) DDR boss chart than an ITG chart. Crossover and jump usage were really random and bad, and the rhythms were kind of weakly done (with the exception of the vocal parts)
4 / 10 - Secondary Chart
See above; most of my complaints still hold. Also there was that part that was just quarter (8th) notes for like 20 seconds, which was really boring (especially due to the doubled BPM)
2 / 05 - Presentation
Graphics are kind of plain, and I don't like the glow on Sweet Devil. Most of my docking of points is due to the doubled BPM though; that wasn't even remotely warranted.
0 / +/- 01 - Tilt
The doubled BPM really really rubbed me the wrong way on this. Sorry :/

The Birds and the Bees 13.5 / 25
3 / 10 - Expert
This had the similar pattern problems as your last entry; random crossovers and ambiguity everywhere. There were a lot of straight-up weird rhythms (I'm pretty sure none of the triplets or 64ths are there) and other weird parts (such as the hands) The mine breaks in the middle were kind of cool though.
7.5 / 10 - Secondary Chart
Hey, this was actually kind of neat, nice job! Wish you would have had a little more chaos in there and strayed away from straight 8th notes a bit
3 / 05 - Presentation
I like that you drew the graphics yourself, but they're very amateur-looking. Also might as well point this out; I like the song a lot but it doesn't offer a lot, it's pretty repetitive and doesn't have much in the way of interesting rhythms.
0 / +/- 01 - Tilt

[hellrazor]

Approval Vote
Last Orgasm
Muenzuka Set 02
Sweet Devil

[Greg]

Disconnected
I love the music! :D Steps are nice too, maybe I'd just change few things, but overall I liked it :P
Last Orgasm
Again, nice song, I think I like Sota Fujimori xD Steps were fun too.

[cpubasic13]

Approval Vote

Disconnected
Muenzuka Set 02
I enjoyed these two a lot.

[Lisek]

Approval vote:
Last Orgasm
The Birds and the Bees

[Hainaut]

Chaosmaid:

Hard - 5/10
Although there isn't much to fault technically, the problem with this chart is that it's incredibly generic. The steps are mostly just predictable and unchallenging, and nothing particularly remarkable happens until the chorus, during which you add in some long streams with crossovers in them.

Expert - 5.25/10
There's nothing glaring bad about this stepchart, but it's not really very polished or interesting, either. The placement is mostly very repetitive or unimaginative, and the challenge is mostly just based on all of the difficult 16th streams.

Presentation - 4.75/5
I guess this is mostly okay. I would like a little less pitch black in the banner's backdrop, though.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 15/25

Disconnected:

Medium - 5.5/10
Although your placement is really clean and smooth throughout, I can tell you got rather lazy with this set, as you mostly resort to the same types of basic patterns of mostly quarter streams with a few 8ths in-between the entire way through, even when they didn't fit the song at all. It's too bad, because these steps work beautifully during the chorus, but since there isn't much variation, I just don't find myself invested in them in context.

Hard - 5.75/10
I'm immediately turned off by the beginning of this stepchart. Aside from the fact that the steps begin with the song, the intro offers very little opportunity for steps because the synths and beat don't become prominent until later on. Here, you completely overstepped these boundaries by concentrating a bunch of long 8th streams that really do not fit at all. The stuff in the middle areas is mostly good, but I don't like the way you handled the second half of the last chorus. You should've just built upon the pattern of 16th drills during the first half of the section rather than suddenly followed a completely different melody, which is very quiet and shouldn't really be stepped to in the first place.

Presentation - 4.5/5
Graphics have some cool effects, but the color scheme needs more work. There's a little too much black here, and the half-black fill in the text blends too much into the backdrop. I do quite like the song, but song choice has no effect here.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 15.75/25

Last Orgasm:

Hard - 10/10
This is so much fun. It's like a ditz-style Heavy stepchart on crack. There's so much rhythmic creativity that's bound together quite slickly by masterful placement.

Expert - 9.5/10
Lots of technical genius packed into here. Basically another great example of how much you've improved in the past few months. I think there's a little too much forward-facing early on, but in general I don't have much to complain about otherwise.

Presentaiton - 5/5
The graphics are pretty orgasmic.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 24.5/25

Muenzuka Set 02 -Oriental Dark Flight-:

Hard - 8.75/10
Overall quite solid. The one part I wish you had handled differently is the drum interlude right before the second half of the pipe organ chorus. Up until that point, you're following the organ pretty much verbatim, but then you very rigidly switch to the drum roll instead, which I find awkward. Otherwise, this is mostly good, even though it doesn't completely knock me off my feet.

Expert - 8/10
The first half of this stepchart reminds me a lot of Sweet World from ITG 2 - by that, I mean everything except for the lack of 48th gallops. Mostly, this is a pretty effective chart, albeit a slightly contrived one in certain areas. Also, I wish you had cut down on the note concentration during the first part in which the electric pipe organ is introduced because it becomes repetitive and blends into the following phrase, when the full percussion returns.

Presentation - 5/5
The fonts used in the graphics are kind of cheesy, but the artwork is nice and colorful enough that it all works.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 21.75/25

Sweet Devil:

Hard - 6.5/10
Overall okay, but not particularly exciting or creative. The patterns you used are appropriate, but a little repetitive and rather stale most of the time.

Expert - 5.75/10
The rhythms you picked are mostly pretty effective, although some of the streams are a bit longer that I'd prefer. However, there are lot of problems with placement. Too many bad, forced double-steps, not to mention too much right-facing as well.

Presentation - 3.25/5
Okay, WHY did you double this simfile's bpm for most of the duration of the song? It so clearly doesn't match the music in any way, shape, or form and just feels like a very arbitrary attempt at experimental creativity. Small bonus for the bg video.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 15.5/25

The Birds and the Bees:

Hard - 7/10
Not a bad stepchart, but honestly it feels a lot more like an authentic DDR-style Heavy stepchart than an ITG-style Hard one. The placement becomes a little unfocused at points, but the use of double-steps is kind of effective.

Expert - 2.5/10
This is quite chaotic and uncontrolled. The placement is extremely awkward and faces right way too much. The patterns themselves feel like basically the same thing the whole time, and when you add in a few new twists to go along with the added sounds, it just becomes more of a mess. Most of the time, I can barely even hear what rhythms you're trying to follow. I couldn't get into this at all.

Presentation - 4/5
Sync is a tad too early. Graphics are decent but a little bland. I do have to say that this is a pretty creative song choice, even though that's not factoring into my rating here.

Tilt - 0/1

Final Score: 13.5/25

[will-i-am]

Last Orgasm
Sota <3

Muenzuka Set 02 Oriental Dark Flight