Nov. 15 and Nov. 17 DDR A20PLUS Joint Score Report
Happy Friday, y’all. With Thanksgiving next week, I’ve returned this week to playing DDR at my local Dave & Buster’s for the first time in a month: I’m making a point to go during quieter hours when no one is around so as to be more easily focused when playing the game. I’m fortunate to work a job that affords this flexibility; and with work otherwise light right now, I figured I’d take the opportunity to catch up on maintaining my physical health and making incremental progress toward the LIFE4 Amethyst I rankup.
I played twice this week: first, on Wednesday for an hour just to get a sweat in; and second, today (Friday) for two hours. Although I’m about to report high scores, I always made it a point first to get into the swing of things mentally and emotionally before testing my patience to earn high scores. It’s not possible to play for score while feeling down, tired, or upset. For better or for worse, soldiering on is hard for me to do, but I keep trying anyway.
These efforts bore good fruit. Here are the highlights:
Three New Level-14 PFC’s!
I earned three new level-14 PFC’s this week!
Level-14 PFC #83: Fuchinkan Candy. 3.0x HID+. One try on Wednesday - I was nervous to make it out of the slowdown and Freeze Arrows having kept combo, but I pulled through to convert the PFC.
Level-14 PFC #84: La libertad. 3.25x HID+. One try on Friday - I was searching for one-off new piffs to make progress on the gold lamp; and coming off getting a 1g FC on Hella Deep ESP 14 the song prior, I felt inclined to give this a try after seeing STARLONG upscore an FC AAA on this chart. I committed to finishing the run after going gold for 200 combo, especially through the isolated crossover triplets, and it worked out! I’m a happy camper.
Level-14 PFC #85: Pierce the Sky. 3.25x HID+. One try on Friday - Coming immediately off PFC’ing La libertad, I wanted to get one more lv14 PFC to round out my career total to the 5, so I was in search of something bursty at 170 BPM. This chart fit the bill, and having gotten 2g FC’s multiple times in prior months, I felt confident to give this a go.
Additional Thoughts About These Scores
La libertad CSP is a chart I haven’t been able to get away from, for better or for worse; in tournaments this year, I’ve assigned it as a qualifier song for Everything but Expert and Eclipse 2023; and on LIFE4, it’s one of four songs in the Upheaval Trial, a set of four level-14 charts that when played for high score in order together count toward rankup progress.
I am admittedly looking for a first Pearl rating on any Trial; but last I played this set a long time ago, I earned Platinum (three ratings lower) on the run. The Pearl requirements look steep but doable:
9 or fewer Greats, Goods, or Misses [GGM]
145 missing EX or less (5399 EX)
I can manage a 1/2/5/1 GGM for the set, but an EX pacemaker of 20/40/45/40 would be hard for me. Certainly, I’ll shortlist this for a fourth Cobalt-rated Trial sometime.
Additionally, converting the PFC on Pierce the Sky ESP was not trivial: I was not operating at full stamina, so to conserve energy, I double stepped every crossover until I hit the ending, where I went full-send on turning my body to hit all the crossover gallops to close out strong with technical confidence in my crossover ability. I’m looking forward to thinking about PFC’ing the CSP 16 some day; but for now, I’m happy to finally get this chart out of my head after getting a 2g FC for the first time on this two years ago during the pandemic at a bubble tea shop that’s since closed (see above picture. Shout-outs AKEMITCG who I remember blasting a sub-20p PFC on this during Dahn Dahn Right in 2022.
Level-14 991k Score Floor GET (A20+)!
Finally, after months of having these charts sat just below the 991k line, I was able to sweep my last five 14’s-Cytokinesis ESP, Pursuer DSP, Across World CSP, Joker CSP, and Chaos ESP-today to above the line! None of these took one try today and took active focus on refining footwork techniques, timing understandings, and occasionally game options.
Notes From the Grind
Cytokinesis was on 2.5x SUD+. I started with it enabled at a low height and then turned it off after the 180 BPM section when it slowed down into a speedup to 280 BPM where I got my first Great. I bled slow Greats reading above 2.5x, so learning to toggle “slight Sudden+” is currently my best path forward to convert the PFC.
Pursuer was on 2.25x SUD+. I’m not a fan of reading the ending at 675 BPM (I normally read at max 600 BPM), but I could not grasp the Perfect window at 2.0x. Shout-outs LUBANAH, who with not even twenty total career level-14 PFC’s somehow converted this one. His high score here and ability to handle jank inspired me to push through on the upscore.
JOKER CSP was on 3.75x HID+. This chart is difficult to high score on both stock pads using stiff soled shoes. CHRS4LFE has MFC’ed this chart by bracketing the infamous 16th-note stepjumps, but with that tech physically unavailable to me without risking breaking my kneecaps, I honed in on getting the heel-toe action just right to hit Perfects on those patterns early on if not just keeping combo. I look up to BLUESTER for his high score who’s converted the PFC here using heel-toe techniques.
Across World CSP was on 3.25x HID+. I committed to the run after exiting the opening stepjump-jack patterns keeping both green combo and positive score pacemaker. I’m physically capable to convert the PFC. I’ll come back to this later in my 14 gold lamp journey. Shout-outs KERI who beat me on this chart during our match at Mistake on the Lake 5.
Chaos ESP was on 3.25x HID+. In a run earlier today, I got 5 Greats and 1 Good to net a +10 upscore (1 Perfect. One.); so, confident I could do better with a green combo, I keep trying until I built up a green run with positive pacemaker to convert a 5g FC. Heel-toeing the opening 16th-note stepjump is not yet PA’able for me. If anything, this will be one of the hardest blockers to figure out to complete the 14 gold lamp in the future.
3icecream Export
And that’s it for today! SkillAttack has been down for several days this week as of this post, which sucks, so I’m grateful 3icecream continues to be up to fetch my scores.
