November 22nd*, 2025 - DJMAX
so!! if you saw the first post on the 21st about DJMAX and whatnot, you might've seen mention of a tournament i was looking for prep for. "oh i see, an early practice session to single out your weak points and practice them for a future tourney, right?" correct on the first part, but you see... the tournament was actually TODAY . i had not gotten the chance to prep at all since i was so backed up with homework, and the one other day i was free was . well . yesterday! but alas, competition waits for no one, and so even if i was washed and chopped and primed for destruction... i had to lock in and give it my all during the tournament by practicing a little beforehand .
and so i called upon my trusty last resorts... Jazy and Win!!! Both were competing with me in the same tourney, and both were also looking to get some practice in before the big tourney, so we all just decided "fuck it, Friendship Training!!" and got in a lobby to practice random picks, danger charts, fun stuff that Might kill us should it pop up during the tourney, across our selected modes 4B and 6B (despite neither of us being great at both, having a preference towards one or the other) . and.... despite my optimism and strength carrying over from yesterday's training session, my confidence was utterly Crushed within just a few songs of playing with these guys . they were GOOD good, both Jazy and Win destroying me in 6B, and then even Win getting the upper hand on me in 4B HARD JUDGE!!! imma be honest i kinda stopped taking screenshots at this point because i was so crushed and demotivated by how much these guys were . well . crushing me... and if the pre-tourney practice was going like this already? who knows what the tourney itself would be like...
and so, the time comes for the tournament and ends for our practice... my practice partners seemed hype about it, but i felt utterly crushed and washed in comparison, and didn't even expect to get past the group stage at such a crushing rate . but hey, you never know if you don't try or whatever! and so i went up when my group was called, practically vibrating with nerves . "so this is how it ends, huh? i'm gonna choke every chart with nerves and get outplayed by the acc players in my group... tragic." that's how it was supposed to go anyways, but surprisingly... the opposite happened!!! in a wicked sick twist of fate, i managed to pull through despite my spasms, and i managed to not just win the group, but perfect BOTH CHARTS given to us!! (that being Ray of Illuminati [4BMX 13*] and To Be With You [4BSC 2*]) . admittedly, i feel i May have lucked out with two players of my group dropping out and both charts being 4B instead of 6B, but hey!!! i'll take a win!!
the group match ended, i moved onto the top 21 bracket, and i was still SHAKING like HELL from the nerves . got a few congrats in chat and had a damn good roll about it, watched my friends fight through their pools, and unfortunately... only Win made it out, as Jazy would fall victim to a super strong 6B player while choking on the song picks . no matter though; despite our semi-competitive matches and (de)motivation, we were still the bestest of friends, and so it was my goal along with win to avenge him and go through as much of the tournament as possible! now, only to see who my opponent was and defeat the-
ah . well, would you look at that! it appears we were pitted together in the bracket, and as the first match of the true bracket at that... it was the Worst possible case scenario, none of us wanted this!!! we were supposed to be split up and meet later in the bracket should we both survive our matches... not have to eliminate each other so early on!!! but alas, the bracket changes for no one, and even if one of us falls... that means the other carries the flame and rides the DA18 trio into the next match. and so we play our matches...
funny sidenote actually; while we both picked 4B and 6B, i think we both knew we were bad at it and the match would be extremely lopsided, so we actually both banned the one 6B chart that appeared in the song picks LOL . i'm a bit too lazy to reiterate what i felt during the match so i'll just let the results speak for themselves...
... whuh??? i won??? against my supposed bracket demon and threat going all the way back to our practice sessions??? i don't believe it... i thought i was done for from the start . nerves were getting to me insanely high and i shitmissed on both Nevermind [4BSC 12*] and Airwave [4BSC 11*], and then win had already beaten me once on 4B HARD JUDGE; what's to say he couldn't do it again? but through the miracle of BlueWhite [4BSC 13*] being BlueWhite, i pulled through and clutched with my Sick Acc Skillz... leading to the most kickass ass-kicking of the tourney so far!!! i really felt bad for win after the match but alas... it would've ended with one of us being knocked out either way, all that's left is for me to carry on the DA18 flame and get as far in the tournament as possible with my friends in mind...! now, for the next opponent...
ah . oh dear . that is somewhat of a bigger threat... not only is this one of the Lord of DJMAX players who auto-qualified into the Top 16 bracket, but he was the top seed of the whole tournament!!! insanely unfortunate set of circumstances, and it was already teased from the start of my match against Win that we'd be utterly destroyed by this next opponent... but no matter . i won against my biggest rival in this tournament, i had a good run despite my initial worries, and i had no fear for the result of this tournament . so despite the circumstances, i just mellowed out and went to practice solo before the match... when out of nowhere THIS HAPPENS . i don't even know how or why, i wasn't in Any condition or performance to get this, i just figured it'd be a good song to warm up on... but i guess it's there, We're All Gonna Die [4BSC 14*] PERFECT PLAY as my FIRST 14* PERFECT!!!!!!!! FIRST TRY OF THE DAY FIRST PLAY OUTSIDE OF MULTI I'M BEWILDERED DUDE WHAT THE HELL (AND WITH CAT NOTES TOO!!)
alright yeah, that was all the motivation i needed to push on and keep fighting despite my underdog circumstances in this next match . so i joined the lobby (on my second-to-last call, a bit late LOL) and got to work, eliminated the 6B chart i knew i couldn't do from the song selection, and loaded into the first chart: glory MAX -to the MAXimum- [4BSC 11*], seeking only to put on the best performance i could give against the best player i could fight . and in yet another twist of fate... THIS happened.
a tie. in hard judge. against the top seed of the tournament. i didn't believe it for a good while, i was so sure i was doomed and so sure i'd be out-acc'ed despite my own strength... but somehow i managed to match a level of someone who's basically perfected every high-level 4B chart in the game??? i guess... but Damn. that hits hard... not a great result of course, as this meant we were now 1-1 and the next match would be the tiebreaker if we didn't tie it again, but no matter... i shall give it my all and hopefully come out on top!!!
...yeahhhh i dunno what i was expecting, but it just wasn't meant to be . unfortunate really, but hey!!! i had a damn good time, some damn good matches, and i had a ton of fans cheering me on ranging from my employer John Combo to my rivals/besties from RLG and DA18 to some other oomfs including ones from the Latino DJMAX community whom i'd met in the tourney server!!! was an amazing experience i wouldn't trade for anything else . even if i didn't go as far as some might expect, this was perfectly satisfactory for me, and enough motivation to keep training with my all for future tournaments . hopefully until next time, 2dkaps OUT!
BONUS: here's video of my match against Lolgood (top seed) in case you wanna see how crazy chat went upon the tie and whatnot LOL . watching it again makes me giddy... it was truly a beautiful night and i appreciate everyone rooting for me in chat asldjflksj;lfajs . i also have video of the two matches before (Top 21 vs WinMine360 and my group matches) on this channel, which you can find on my channel just before this one!)
RETROACTIVE NOTE: i've added a little asterisk to this post as there were indeed more rhythm games played today that i didn't get around to posting! those will be sorted under November 23rd with an explanation because 1. i'm too lazy to write more about them here (this post is already long enough as-is), and 2. it kinda takes away from the huge DJMAX tourney arc that i was hyping up all throughout this post, even if i kinda gave up on writing towards the end . i'll still give said scores the love and attention they deserve in the next post, but this is DJMAX's time to shine!!! (after all, i haven't played it since this tourney as of writing this post LOL, maybe before the end of the year...)