osu!mapping: beatmap nominators

a deep dive into the quality assurance warriors behind all the ranked maps you know and love
resources:
wafer's profile: osu.ppy.sh/use...
Malphs' profile: osu.ppy.sh/use...
Electoz modding guide: t.co/ShXVapVkUV
achyoo modding guide: docs.google.co...
Basen's modding tutorials: • osu!modding: bn applic...
pishi's presentation about connections: • the osu! ranking syste...
and some general resources for the history of mapping and modding in osu! (pretty much just a wiki article and a bunch of old pishi videos):
osu.ppy.sh/wik...
• osu!mapping: end of th...
• osu!mapping: disqualif...
• osu!mapping: moddingv2
• osu!mapping: the end o...
• osu!mapping: bn promotion
• osu!mapping: BAT/QAT s...
~~~
CREDITS
~~~
big thanks to the proofreading crew (Ralkinson, dedekind, NeonLights, Silverboxer, Surgis, uniform, Basensorex, Visionary, enri, olc, and Yumenexa) for making sure my script was ok
songs used (in order) (not including the intro):
fzpz - Crystal Chasms
"File Select" from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Herb Alpert - Spanish Flea
"Underground Rhythm" from Super Mario Bros. Wonder
"Mr. Top Player" (Jamie's Theme) from Street Fighter 6
xaev - pronoun picker sing berdlycore
The Eden Project - Lost
BaSTeT - DARK LEGACY (Long version)
Original Love - WALL FLOWER
map footage used (in order):
osu.ppy.sh/bea...
osu.ppy.sh/bea...
osu.ppy.sh/bea...
osu.ppy.sh/bea...
osu.ppy.sh/bea...

[@pishifat]

good video!!

[@kataryn]

thank you!! ^^

[@Nemo_Doko]

Can we get a collab vid between you two? Pls

[@kirishimaosu1]

hey mom I'm on the TV!

[@shareosu7048]

Kiri the goat

[@arutama]

!!!

[@Yumenexa]

Hi malphs

[@pipedreams.]

hi kirishima

[@glorioussun2505]

OMG LOL.

[@yasporuben]

nice vid! wanna quickly clarify that the NAT don't have necessarily have a "final say" in veto results, calling in a jury of BN mediators and focusing on just relaying their consensus is meant to alleviate that sort of authority

[@kataryn]

thank you for clarifying! I wasn't 100% clear on how it worked

[@TsunakaClubby]

don't forget calling in monstrata to be the mappers public defender

[@imnotaweeb1270]

As a new mapper, it all feels so scary and complicated, but so fun at the same time. The hardest part really is making something that's actually enjoyable for others while being rankable, but I'll get there one day 🙏. Very good video

[@nick1752]

no your not. social skills > mapping skills if you wanna get a ranked. wanna make something enjoyable, my advice is to not care about rank at all

[@hac39]

I remember having the idea of wanting to be permanently open as a new BN but it ultimately didn't work because it became overwhelming after a few months. Being closed is usually when BNs are busy modding maps in their queue and catching up with already accepted requests, so it only makes sense that they're closed for a while to work on actually nominating maps, rather than checking for new ones to mod.

[@kataryn]

thank you for giving your perspective! that's a good point to bring up

[@daninho13ful]

The video is good, but I have a real question for the NAT/BNG. Don't you guys think 8:33 has something to do with 10:48? If the modding/mapping process is not well documented and the only real way of learning either of them is through a "mentorship program" where again, only a selected few gets chosen (there is also no guarantee of the chosen mentee being competent or motivated enough to become a BN), then there is a higher chance of the applicants being bad, since they might not have been mentored by an NAT or BN member before. This is kinda like if you were to attend to a university, learning some kind of profession, and the only way to learn is through lectures and lessons, without any kind of documentation (books, online tutorials etc). This makes the BN application being a test where you have expectations from the students, but you didn't give out the correct amount of material for each of them to learn from, which I personally don't think it's fair. I think it would be nice to have more documentations available online on these topics, so anyone who is motivated enough can just go ahead, read them and learn it. It's also more efficient for you people, since you just need to write it down once, maybe update them every few years or so, and don't have to spend so much time and energy on the mentoring side of thing. Each applicants would also have more chance for getting the amount of knowledge that's needed to be part of the BNG.

[@Kibitz]

Your editing style and speech is really engaging and refreshing to see. Really glad I stumbled across this as a fellow osu documentary maker myself, I see some improvements I can take from this. Wishing you the best :)

[@kataryn]

i actually just got one of your videos recommended to me recently! thanks for the kind words and wishing you the best too :)

[@aceticke]

seeing myself in here is absolute whiplash, but this was so well put together! i know malph (kiri) and wafer quite well since we hang out in BN groups often, and they did so well I'm proud 🥹 I'm an NAT now so the ending message interests me a little, but maybe my opinions would differ quite a bit since I do the osu!taiko gamemode. Maybe for another time 🐱

[@kataryn]

thank you! I mainly talk about standard in my videos but I have some taiko mapper friends and it's super interesting to me, would really like to learn more about it someday. congrats on NAT!

[@maxim-miau]

Me as a mania BN myself find this video a very good insight into the BNg in general for people that might not know much about the BNg or about the people in it. What i also found good is, that wafer and kirishima didnt just repeat the same things and both had their own opinions for example on the bn applications or the other points in the video. It just shows that not every BN is doing the same things, but that everybody in the BNg is different and likes different kinds of music etc. Very good video keep up the great work :D And also to everybody who wants to rank maps: Dont get salty or mad about BNs not taking your map, complaining about it on twitter makes chances even lower to get accepted then

[@noeliartt]

i know this is gonna be good, loving these types of videos! 💜

[@mercury9060]

interviews with mappers/bns are one of my favorite genres of videos to watch related to osu, and this felt structured very nicely and easy to comprehend.

[@cfreckas1]

made a map and 30 bns have said no already man...

[@daaaaaaanny]

I think the issue with the BN system is that mapping has exploded in size recently and they're getting overwhelmed. This usually leads to rejections that dont leave you with much to learn from as 9 times out of 10 their reason will just be "not interested" (not that I blame them, its unreasonable to expect BNs to check every request when theyre given hundreds to sift through).

[@kataryn]

yeah, usually they're just so busy that they don't have time to elaborate

[@the8bitclicker_193]

plus they have other things to do, like maybe make a map or do something irl you can't expect too much from them, especially since there are too many maps that are either completely shit or a goldmine (mostly being the former)

[@etaosin]

Thx for this more unknown for me aspect of OSU! I don't know that a little group of people are responsible for this nominations. Great Kudosu for them, and for you to create this important video.

[@seismixx]

who tf are you why I never saw this channel before I hope this video get you to 1k sub and beyond brotherr goodluck

[@celektus]

Nice video, it was refreshing to see at least some BNs get a public platform to voice their thoughts on many of these issues. It always seemed unfair to me how much shit BNs get for issues that are mostly a consequence of there being far more mappers going for rank relative to BNs. It's just an impossible task to achieve by that number of people. If you can rank only so many things a month obviously you're going to be open for less time, be more picky about what kind of maps or songs you nominate, etc. I think at least problems 1. and 3. mentioned in the video are real to some extent, but there's no easy solution, the NAT can't just magically summon more BN applicants unless they're making standards so low that almost anyone can get in. But people are going to blame both groups anyway until the end of the games existence problably.

[@th3on3c]

As someone who doesn't play osu very much, if these two are examples of active and recent BNs then hopefully the community has nothing to worry about (these interviews are legit incredibly well done, keep up the good work cyndi :D)

[@deyzick32]

What wafer said at the end around 17:50 really strikes me the wrong way. I quote "I would much rather accept a map that is interesting and is bad, than is safe and good." This is pretty much why the mapping drama is happening now. We just wanted some safe and good maps, but guess what, let's just rank all the quirky maps cause they're interesting!

[@maxdragonsoul5553]

i don't think wafer speaks for all BNs, but i do think BNs as a collective are looking for memorable/outlandish maps as opposed to more standard patterns you can sorta see this by looking at the modern stream map meta. emu1337 spent a decent amount of time being a centrepiece stream farm mapper (honesty, xevel, plasma gun), and currently we have nebuwua mapping the HDHR farm stream maps (with DT farm GDs) and itswinter mapping nomod ones. you don't see too many farmable, simple stream maps ranked outside of those two people at the moment.

[@silasnebulous4533]

Wow, this is so more complicated than i thought. My view on BNs was, "good mapper, bn, good map, bn approves, qualified, no problems, ranked, fin" Although i do feel like the ranking requirements should be more lenient so more mappers feel motivated to push to ranked. (I want my obscure ar 8 4,8* maps ranked so i can dt them)

[@Gadottinho]

How is this obscure, literally every sotaks map has what you described

[@silasnebulous4533]

@@Gadottinho cap. Sotarks maps are AR 8,8>, I can't reas that dt

[@glorioussun2505]

Good thing this BN test is a lot more reasonable than I thought lol!

[@lurumic]

Very nice video and pacing was engaged through out

[@suharb5014]

I think theres a problem that if you have some criticism of ranking system and idea to make it better you dont have any way to actually communicate it to the bns/nats. Or maybe i dont know any, which is also kind of a problem (telling them directly is even more scary that when you do requests). A lot of times people do problem stamps on maps not because of the map, but because of the ranking system because they dont have any other way. Or in case of sotarks he made a whole set just to bring up a problem and make a point.

[@Murada-]

nice video! your editing is really good too

[@Duckable]

I've still yet to ever play this game and yet i still enjoy how you explain it all

[@justsomeoneelse5942]

This is an insanely good video, you deserve so much more subs!

[@vlados652]

your videos are so good man, keep it up!

[@wildcard_chase4259]

My main thing cause I am also considering becoming a BN is to get really good at modding and for me that’s going out of my comfort zone a bit cause it challenges your info on whatever game mode you’re playing against other people who have been here just as long or longer than you have most times on what you know about modding.

[@romainbaudet9135]

Very interesting video, thanks for your hard work !

[@momothx1]

absolute goat this video is a banger

[@haruruhaha]

As always, very useful video! Good job :>

[@lapischicken]

very insightful video, tyy

[@echoeee]

congrats on 1k

[@shko640]

song is too loud to the point i couldnt focus at times but this video was great & a really enjoyable watch

[@kataryn]

despite me being kind of an audio nerd, audio mixing is one of the biggest things i'm unsure about with these videos and i never really know what to think about the balance on a given video until someone makes a comment like this, so thank you for your feedback

[@BasicallyA-NEET]

Damn, another banger video, let's go

[@tritobandito7853]

Thanks cyndi for saving me out of a burning building and feeding my pet capybara when i had double cancer

[@cantbepixil]

this video is rly good like why are you so underrated lol

[@schneesdog]

13:49 ooo that's my map

[@Ramelrammu]

awesome vid fr

[@oatmilk5]

QUEEN, so good

[@Bnhershy]

Just a correction at 1:09 , it's not 0.00001%; 1/100,000 = 0.001% Interesting videos you have, btw; well presented, well scripted 👍

[@kataryn]

my bad lol i never realized this. thanks!

[@astravankashiwazaki8390]

malphs :smiling_imp:

[@melleganol]

nice video, full of facts ( 10:16 💀💀💀)

[@boden0_]

Great vid! Can't wait for the twitter frogs to start complaining about how you didn't mention comfy aim once

[@urichan__]

I LOVE BNS ‼‼‼ LOVE THEM SO MUCH 🥰😍♥ BNS NOM MY MAP 🗺✅🌍BNG IS PERFECT 👑🔝💯

[@Termizorrpl]

it's too strict in rules of becoming BN as it is also too strict rules of ranking criteria.. That needs to change, as video mentioned there is like 0.00001% people that are BNs, which means there is a lot of maps that people want to rank, but there is no enough of BNs, if so just add more BNs don't be so strict with perfect "modding" to add someone to BN team. Also don't pay too much attention to ranking criteria, they are so hilarious for example: 4:15min needs to have insane diff map has 4:14min drain time - BNs - you need insane diff.. this is funny.. everything needs to be perfect or almost perfect, go back to 2k11 2k12 ranking maps guys... Why don't bring it back? I don't say ranking criteria shouldn't exist, while it should, but they can't be that strict, same as becoming BN.

[@poczwar4704]

this year ill try modding for real and app for bn

[@SanzuRiver]

She made the vid. Nice

[@Okoratu]

wholesome

[@Amongusrtx30080]

New cyndi video new banger

[@yasuhosu]

cool video! :)

[@ebblies]

we need more bns

[@santaisreal]

I can only see one solution. Revert to how geometry dash does it. RobTop (peppy) has to manually rank every map and he's the only one that can do it! Im cooking arent I

[@DISCONSOLATION]

good vidoe män

[@upbeat6639]

nice vid

[@fivoka]

8:38 did u autopilot the "off" into the captions eauyhkbgn,

[@kataryn]

no i think that's just what he says

[@arynosu]

BNs💀I don't think I should share my opinions on them, but good video!

[@fizkpmy]

before 1k subs club 🙌

[@auriga05]

puting kuting

[@MightyBreedable]

Do these guys getting paid? Cause if not why would they even care about anything

[@pianoboy5448]

u didnt talk about nat since u can milk it for another video 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 GET ON THE GRIND

[@neshazzz]

gm chat

[@xlorkaz]

brother you need to stop playing rafis nomod.. actually tho great vid

[@kataryn]

HAHA I use this skin for everything I'm sorry

[@Keiji471]

BNs have ruined standard for me

[@anotherguy3554]

keep whining

[@Keiji471]

@@anotherguy3554 🤓found one of them

[@anotherguy3554]

@@Keiji471 ok noob

[@Keiji471]

bros mad hardstuck 4 digit 🤓@@anotherguy3554

[@Keiji471]

only yap when ur in the top 100 and u only play one game mode and ur still not 3 digit@@anotherguy3554

[@espiionosu]

meow

[@ebblies]

why dont they make every uploaded map rankable and give pp by default and then then bns take down the goofy ahh ones

[@realsnezki]

i think that will make many GMT (and even BN) work 10x harder to ban people who misuse that to farm pp + server will be much slower because the fact it will save much more replay data from the leaderboards

[@ebblies]

@@realsnezki maybe a public approval system by normal players?

[@maxdragonsoul5553]

@@ebblies i think a public approval system would be pushed to its limit with something like Goodbye Moonmen

[@frnono]

😭bns

[@jkake5398]

Algorithm

[@ghostel9253]

WAIT is your discord pfp spronkus kronkus?

[@kataryn]

this comment was extremely funny to read with no context but no, the pfp shown in the video is Mimippu-kun, the mascot of Ministop (a Japanese convenience store chain)