(originally posted on speedrunning subforum, moved it to here because i figured it would make more sense)

big wall of text incoming

First and foremost, I want to thank osu!mania player Transcendence[1] for the idea for this speedrun. Transcendence hosted an unofficial osu speedrun (specifically osu!mania) which follows the format of this idea in this thread exactly[2].

The way that a speedrun for osu! is executed is as follows: you must either full combo 10, 25, 50 or 100 maps in succession, or SS 10 or 25 maps in succession. The faster you do this, the higher placement your speedrun gets.

The problem with this methodology is how this is completely unrelated to the main appeal of the game. osu! is a rhythm game which pushes a player's abilities can go. People put months and years into pushing their abilities in the game as far as possible, and in the end this effort barely gives them any advantage in this speedrun, as most players end up playing very easy maps in this speedrun since they happen to be short. osu! is supposed to display how far one player has gotten in their time playing the game, and watching a high level player play some map casually is much more interesting than people competing to see who can decrease the time they take in the menu screen (tl;dr: the current way the osu speedrun works tests something completely unrelated to what the game is supposed to test, your abilities to aim circles/tap drums and keys/catch fruit as good as possible). In the end, there's a very definitive limit/ceiling for how fast the speedrun can be done, at which point it is no longer possible or convenient to be pushed forward.

So what is the solution for this? In my opinion, this speedrun should be broken into 4 seperate categories for the 4 different game modes in osu (standard, mania, catch and taiko). Some people who specialize in these gamemodes should pick a specific beatmap to be played by the speedrunners for every specific gamemode. This should be a map that is 1) fairly recognizable among the playerbase of the gamemode the map appeals to, and 2) is accessible to many players, meaning that players dont need to slow it down too much in order to be able to play it. It should also be somewhat well rounded as far as which skillsets are needed to be used go.

The map's file can than be taken by the player and put into a rate changer to change the speed. In osu, a rate changer is a program which gives the player a new difficulty at a new rate. The most popular rate changer I know of is TrippinBeats's Osu Rate Changer[3]. You can set the rate to anything (within reason); 1.1x speed, 1.7x speed, 60x speed, 0.2x speed, and so on and so forth. What I think the speedrun should consist of is of skilled players trying to push the speed at which they can play one map as far as they can. In this case, the speedrun will become much more skill based and much more attractive to skillful players, while still retaining its image as a speedrun.

Something else that Transcendence did in his speedrun was have 2 categories; easy% and hard%. The easy% speedrun focuses more on a player's sheer speed; it requires a player to pass a song as fast as possible on HP0 and OD0, whereas the hard% speedrun focused on speed, but also on accuracy, requiring a player to play on a high rate but on HP10 and OD10, making it far, far more challenging to pass.

The following rules resemble what Transcendence implemented into his mania speedrun:

1. Use the given song for the gamemode (he used cyber inductance mapped by icyworld for his mania speedrun)

2. You may use any mods other than the following:

standard banned mods: relax, autopilot, spun-out

mania banned mods: 1k~9k, co-op

taiko banned mods: relax

ctb banned mods: relax

mods banned in all gamemodes: easy, nofail, auto, cinema (doubletime and halftime are allowed if the change in speed is accounted for when submitting your run)

3. Using software manipulation (hacking) or hardware manipulation like using multiple keyboard to make getting a score easier is not permitted. You may only use your own hands, one keyboard and one pointing device (mouse/tablet).

The reason I am posting this here is because I want to get your opinions. What maps do you think should be used? What other rules should be implemented? I would love to hear your opinions on this speedrun.

Thanks again for Transcendence for the idea for this speedrun and for allowing me to propose this idea here.

[1] Transcendence's osu profile: https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/640981

[2] Transcendence's original video on the mania specific speedrun among with other resources:

[3] TrippinBeats's rate changer: https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/640981

hi