It is never fun to deal with bumper to bumper traffic on the drive home when your body and legs are just out of it. I hope someday I can reach these arcades using transit in quick time.
Caught off-guard by the arcade opening an hour later than expected today, I still made the most of a lunchtime session to get in several new high scores, one of which induced one of the strongest pop-offs I’ve had in recent memory.
Three New Level-14 PFC’s
From 75 last time, I’m now up to 78! I’m very close to 80, and I wish I had that extra hour to cross over the line. Oh, well. Here’s the rundown:
#76: Uh-Oh: 3.25x, DT+0.0 (white cab, base +0.0). One try today – it felt good to grasp the window early and then let my matured mechanics do the rest of the work.
#77: Usatei: 2.75x, DT+0.0 (gold cab, base -1.2). One try today – I knew I was in for a good run when I got through the middle section where the notes are timed to someone talking with a PFC intact, and so it was just a matter of mechanics taking me to the finish line.
#78: Sparkle Smilin’: 3.25x, DT+0.0 (white cab). One try today – after flagging it in a previous session, given how long this song is, I’m just happy it’s over with.
Having PFC’ed Uh-Oh and Usatei today, I’ve completed PFC’ing all 14’s rated 14.00-14.30 on 3icecream’s current (ver. 5, rev. 1) tierlist! It feels good to see a whole section of the list continue to be blacked out; getting through this “filler middle” of the 14 gold lamp is something I’ve been asking for a while so that I can better answer “what’s next” as I enter the back half of the gold lamp. Choice paralysis is real!
I’m grateful that the pads here today gave me no issues to do crossovers. I committed to the turns where appropriate in these charts, and I felt rewarded for investing the effort. Despite the lost time, just getting these without having to worry about pad issues at my in-town arcade made the three-hour roundtrip drive worth it.
My Newest MFC in 5 Months
Getting this score out of nowhere induced one of the strongest pop offs I’ve had in recent memory. This is my 2nd level-6 MFC on Happy Lucky Yeappy Single Beginner (bSP). I’ve earned several 1p and 2p PFC’s on other, easier to time charts; but to get this 6.55-rated chart on 3icecream to an MFC on a sightread was just bonkers.
I walked off the pad just confused. “What the he** was that!” I’d ask several of my local DDR friends who were watching, who were as bewildered as I was at what just happened. I had a laugh when my dance partner that set said “You’re welcome!”
1.5x, DT+0.3. I think that Display Timing adjustment was a big help – with FinalOffset reporting it was 4.7ms later than Top the Charts, I could really lean into timing this song aurally and making sure the sound of my steps aligned to the sound of the music. Going white for 50 felt already a little unusual; staying white after the stop was insane to me. When the song sped up to 380 BPM (for reference, the song is mostly at 190 BPM, forcing the player to read slow), and I was still keeping white combo, I just leaned into mechanics and my prior MFC training to mitigate any nerves and close it out.
I now have 11.50 total MFC points per the current LIFE4 rankup requirements. For Amethyst I, I can use earning 20.00 points as a substitute for any requirement; but for now, I’ll let that build up passively. When the momentum is there, it’ll be there.
For AMBONES: A Spooktober Level-18 Raise!
To give context, AMBONES, a Seattle-based top DDR player, is issuing players the “Spooktober” challenge to, in every session, raise at least one level-18 chart. Since I’ve been so heavy into timing development over the past year, I’ve thus not prioritized stamina development, so my upper-level ability has suffered as a result.
Taking this challenge up has thus been an opportunity to, at least in passing, make incremental gains regaining the ability to play upper-level charts with an increased pass rate and of course increased scores.
Today, I raised Triple Journey CSP by about 20k points to just under 870k. Passing it was a blessing – I was off to a great start comboing almost the entire first half; but by the end, my legs were giving out and beginning to get stuck on the pad, and I was losing life bar fast as a consequence. I had to bracket-mash the ending stream just to pass it, but it felt really rewarding to see a blue pacemaker throughout the song.
This is one less chart to think about as I advance toward an 850k score floor on the 18’s (For the Amethyst 3 requirement, 20 remain before 7 exceptions; I’ve yet to clear the A3 18’s). Getting a 900k floor (with 5 exceptions) is a substitution I can passively work towards to complete the higher-tier Pearl rankups, but I expect that to happen slowly.
3icecream Export
And that’s really it for today! As always, thank you for reading, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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