A productive weekend trip to Round 1 played to the point of exhaustion. Mediterranean food afterward was good, though…
Today was another productive day out at Round 1 as I continue my long but currently accelerated climb to LIFE4’s v5.0 Amethyst I rank for DDR A3. I again broke my single-day record for new level-14 PFC’s, got in some lower-level practice, and did a last-minute push for my team in qualifying for the Champions League remote team tournament this fall.
I was sore and exhausted at the end of a three-hour session. Even now, my legs have given out, and I struggle to move from the side of the couch I’m resting on to write this post.
Single Level-14 Gold Lamp Progress: 75 Total PFC’s!
Today, I broke my single-day record of new level-14 PFC’s from five on the 17th to six today. Getting the first few felt easy; but as time went on, the amount of grit required to stay in the game to reach this milestone increased.
It was really important to me to demonstrate output like this again after a less fruitful session earlier on Tuesday. I need to be comfortable producing this amount of high scores to grow from being okay with a modest yield of results after a session in order to with reasonable pace rank up to Amethyst, not to mention achieving higher-level PFC’s generally.
Right now, I think I’m continuing to experience that PFC explosion that began a few weeks prior that higher-skill players said would happen once I reached a certain maturity and consistency in my skills. Physically, my mechanics are good to continue toward the next several PFC’s (and probably all the way up to 95); but mentally, I need to raise my standards and break away from the pattern of “oh, I got a new lv14 PFC”, be satisfied with just that, and not get another new one until several months later.
The droughts in progressing on the level-14 gold lamp I’ve talked about to a few friends need to stop. I need torrents now. Anyway, here’s the gallery:
The list of PFC’s today:
#70: Carton Heroes 20th Anniversary Mix – 3.25x, DT+0.0. A one-off today; no major remarks.
#71: Like a Star – 3.25x, DT+0.0. A one-off today; after repeatedly watching the chart VOD during the week from 150 to 175 combo to internalize the rhythms, I felt most proud to nail that section, and then cruise through the rest of the song afterward.
#72: Tell Me What to Do – 3.75x, DT+0.0. A one-off today; I successfully double-stepped two of the 16th-note gallops in the front half of the chart. Heel-toeing gallops is not something I normally do since I’m adjusted to playing on stock, recessed pads; but on more flush pads like the one at Round 1, doing so as a sort of “emergency tech” really came in handy for me today. Hitting that and then PFC’ing the rest of the chart was nerve-wracking. In a way, heel-toeing feels almost “illegal” since its viability is hardware dependent, but I’ll take the victory and move on.
#73: Unreality – 3.0x, DT+0.0. Two tries; on the first, I rushed a triplet at the end. But, since I knew I had the gimmicks in the front half down, after a short rest at a friend’s recommendation, I returned to the machine to run it back and converted the PFC.
#74: No Life Queen – 3.25x, DT+0.0. Two tries; on the first, my body felt stiff, so when I anchored my right foot for an Up Freeze Arrow and I needed to hit my left foot on Right, I got no movement, dropped combo, and walked off the run. The runback, though, was uneventful.
Combo 168 (Up Freeze) of “No Life Queen [DJ Command Remix]” Single Expert 14. With right foot on Up, my body was stiff and couldn’t cross under the left foot to Right, making me walk of. #75: Wowie Zowie – 4.5x, DT+0.4. Two tries; on the first run, I flagged it, and at this point over two hours in and the arcade crowding out on a rainy afternoon, I entered a do-or-die mode in my head to convert the piff, and I did so with 30% fewer Perfects (a 41p PFC) than my 55p1g run prior. Aurally timing it for MA is frustrating – being comfortable timing visually was helpful.
As a parting note for this section, I look forward to converting the PFC on The History of the Future Single Difficult 14 some time soon. Although it’s rated a 14.35 on 3icecream, I wish it were a little higher up, as I learned today that the gimmicks and audio sync quirks are something I’m continuing to get a grip around.
An Uppers Upset… to Myself
This fall, I’m participating in the DDR Champions League, a worldwide remote team tournament. In accordance with initial planning, I was responsible for producing a score on Emera Single Challenge 17. I… hadn’t done so, and qualifiers end the following night; so, with only ten minutes of rest after coming off PFC’ing Wowie Zowie and one minute on a mall massage chair nearby ($1.00 for three minutes… it was intense), I rushed back in to make a last run for the quals.
Although I fell short of my EX score target for this song (won’t share right now – leaderboards are currently dark), I was extremely proud to, at the point of muscle failure and with my shoulders starting to burn, articulate these patterns to pull off an upscore in excess of 30,000 points. I’m really looking forward to AAA’ing this winter, most likely.
3icecream Export
And that’s it for today! I can’t wait to get to 80 total level-14 PFC’s; but until then, here’s the 3icecream export. Have a good night, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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