There was a Whole Foods next to my go-to Round 1 *this whole time* ???
Good evening, and Happy November! Coming off taking the past week to stay away from the game, this weekend I felt an interest to revisit the game and continue progressing toward improving my scores.
Today, I went to my go-to out-of-town Round 1 to get in some DDR with a friend. I was very productive today and capped off a major milestone!
Lv9 MFC #1, ESP/CSP MFC #1 – Slip Out ESP
I’m starting off this score report with the big one: killing two birds with one stone, I earned not only my first level-9 MFC today, but also my first Expert chart MFC on Slip Out ESP 9! 5.5x.
This comes fifteen months after I got my first level-8 MFC on Golden Arrow BSP, and several months after I was badly turned off from level-9 MFC grinding by a last-note flag on Toy Boxer BSP 9. Getting this on a first play (not a sightread – I studied the chart once prior) was no less nervewracking. It was one thing to see that I was white for 90, but it was another thing to MFC all the 16th-note boxes in the back half of the song.
By the end, I was coming into the last notes of steps and jumps with slightly shaky legs and heightened nerves, and when I saw that I converted the MFC, I leaped off the pad in utter shock and disbelief.
I just could not believe it. There it was. 1,000,000. On a 9. After numerous other 1p PFC’s on 9’s today, yesterday, and in sessions prior, I finally, finally broke through on that last Perfect.
MFC’ing a 9 here earns me 1.00 MFC Points for the LIFE4 rankup system, raising my total to 12.50! 20.00 points earns me a substitution I can use toward ranking up to Amethyst I later on.
The End of the Two-Year “Lowers Gaming” Arc – Acknowledgements
Having MFC’ed at least 1 chart in the Single levels 1 through 9 difficulties, my “lowers gaming” arc has concluded, and I’ll be focusing on spending most of my time in the double-digit difficulty folders (10 and up) going forward to improve my physical fitness and prepare to, among other things, finally stab at PFC’ing my 3rd 16; but the MFC score ceiling grinds will still continue with 10’s and up.
Beginning two years ago, I set out to improve my timing foundations by making lower-level play a more regular part of my DDR sessions. I was frustrated at the slow progress I was making through the Single Level 14 gold lamp, so I reasoned that I should make sure my mechanical fundamentals are so refined that I could isolate failures to PFC things to physical, knowledge, or technical shortcomings rather than base mechanics and go from there to accelerate PFC’ing 14’s.
This sent me all the way down to the single-digit difficulty folders, where I began to learn how to hit Marvelous-judgement steps and stay within the Marvelous window without a secondary judgement to help me correct for errors by using aural feedback from my steps and my own internal sense of rhythm to judge for example “oh, this felt like a Slow Marvelous from 0 milliseconds on-target” or “I hit this note faster than I needed to. I need to dial it back down by just a hair.”
Playing these charts, I knew, would in the long term be a physical hindrance (obviously, lowers are not uppers, right?), but I anticipated that if I went through demonstrating “level mastery” by capping off my folder score ceiling with an MFC beginning at Level 1, then eventually I would have a robust enough mental game to come back to PFC’ing 14’s and up so that all I’d have to do was to become physically fit and technically adept.
I’d like to close this section and my reflections on achieving this MFC by acknowledging those lowers enthusiasts who supported me in these ventures by putting out low-level SDP PFC’s and MFC’s of their own and entertaining conversations with me over the past two years on this subject in passing.
In the Pennsylvania DDR community, I’d like to shout-out VV, PBALL, NATEBIAS, POPPLIO, ELECKS, and LUBANAH.
In the Florida DDR community, I’d like to shout-out DARKAURA and GENICKS.
In the LIFE4 community, I’d like to shout-out MALKIER, NRM, JOESUSHI, JNGTHRNE, and NEXPLOSION.
My 27th Level-15 PFC!
Later in the session, after I cooled off from the euphoria of MFC’ing something, I was making progress on Extra Savior unlocks when I was tasked by my dance partner to play Wakusei Lollipop (“Planet Lollipop”). Since I’m looking to convert new level-15 PFC’s right now and this chart was rated 15.10 on 3icecream, and I’d studied it a few times prior, I gave it a shot, and I converted the PFC on my first play! 3.25x.
Recovering From a Tech Error
Although I converted the PFC on my first play, it wasn’t a trivial effort. It’s appropriately difficult physically for a 15, and the numerous triplets, bursts, and drills are enough to knock an inattentive player out of the Perfect window very quickly.
Additionally, I’d like to highlight measure 46 in the above chart printout: the chart does not punish you for double-stepping crossovers except here, and only here. I knew ahead of time something like this was coming up, but in the moment I didn’t know when exactly it was; so when the crossover came up and I had my left foot on Up before the triplet there, I became alert for a brief moment to half-turn, get my right foot on Left, and then stepjump Up-(Up/Down) facing squarely right before whipping my body to face forward and hit the Up/Left jump in measure 47 facing forward to recover and continue with the rest of the play.
An Additional Thought
I was reminded to never celebrate too early – the chart has an “ending freeze”, but after one measure, the player is tasked to do an ending flair with some jumps. Song ain’t over till it says “Full Combo” or the arrow lanes shading goes away to indicate the song is over. Fortunately, I was prepared for this, but the subject came up while talking to my dance partner.
3icecream Export
And that’s it for today! Here’s the 3icecream export for today’s session as well as a few scores from a set yesterday with some friends elsewhere out-of-town.
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