Aspire 6

Aspire 6 was the sixth iteration of the beatmapping contest where the mappers were encouraged to fully ignore the ranking criteria and explore gameplay mechanics that aren't typically used.

Schedule

Links

• Forum thread for updates
• Contest inquiries: [email protected]
• Contest announcement
• Voting announcement
• Registration form
• Results announcement
• Contest listings

  • osu! (Visual Spectacle)
  • osu! (Innovative Gameplay)
  • osu!taiko
  • osu!catch
  • osu!mania
• Mappers' Guild Aspire Hub

Prizes

The prizes for this contest are as follows:

• osu!: Prizes are split between Visual Spectacle and Innovative Gameplay categories, which one winning Aspirant and two runner-ups each.
• osu!taiko: One winning Aspirant.
• osu!catch: One winning Aspirant.
• osu!mania: One winning Aspirant and one runner-up.

Aspirant: Awarded to the winners of each Aspire category.

Both participants will receive:

• Elite Mapper: Aspirant title (or special increment for existing Elite Mappers)
• Aspire 6 winner badge
• 1 year of osu!supporter

Aspirant badge

Runner-Up: Awarded to runners up and honourable mentions¹ of each category.

Both participants will receive:

Runner-up badge

• Aspire 6 runner-up badge
• 6 months of osu!supporter
• 2 contest points

All prize-winning entries were also added to the Loved category, on the condition that the maps are passable by a human player and parser errors were removed.

Organisation

Aspire 6 was run by various members of the osu! team and community.

Participants

Results

osu!

Visual Spectacle

Innovative Gameplay

osu!taiko

osu!catch

osu!mania

Format

This iteration of Aspire will rely purely on community voting to determine the winners.

This iteration also features two key changes to the format:

Entries will feature teams of up to 2 people. Aspire is about using every available resource, and as such, the combination of skills should greatly elevate the potential of every entry, opening the doors for even greater spectacles. Participating as 1 person alone is still allowed.

Prizing and categories have been simplified. Instead of having many categories, there are now only two main categories:

• Visual Spectacle: Focuses on slider art, storyboards, and just raw aesthetics — this category is for the maps that aren't necessarily playable, but are for sure a sight to behold. This category fits best for the traditional Aspire entries like Solace of Oblivion.
• Innovative Gameplay: Focuses on innovative gameplay mechanics that aren't typically used. This category fits best for the maps that are just as much as experience to play as they are cutting edge. Maps such as Space Invaders fit best for this category.

In addition, osu!taiko, osu!catch, and osu!mania may have said categories depending on the entry count, else they will have a general game mode category.

Depending on the vote distribution, we may also consider awarding a mapper's pick for each category. This will be reviewed internally after submissions have closed.

Operational procedures

Team registration

Contestants must be registered in order to submit an entry. Contestants are allowed to choose their own team name on registration, but the osu! team reserves the right to request a change if deemed unsuitable for the event. Contestants are to remain anonymous for the duration of the contest — they will be revealed at its conclusion.

Register through this form.

Finding a partner

If you're struggling to find a partner to join you, don't forget to check out the Mappers' Guild Aspire Hub for potential candidates!

• This platform allows users to self-advertise.
• Potential participants who are looking to form a team may browse the Aspire Hub to contact someone who they feel is suitable, whether it be mappers seeking storyboarders or vice versa.
• Once a team has been registered, the team members' bios will be updated to indicate that they are no longer available.

The Aspire Hub is an optional process. It is designed as both a support system as well as an additional avenue to help individuals form teams. Participants are welcome to form teams through their own methods as well, but they must still register their team if they intend to participate.

Submissions

Visit the contest page and drop your submission as a .osz file. The deadline is 16 August 2026 (23:59 UTC). The contest page should look something like this:

If your entry takes advantage of the .olz file format in a significant way (such that converting to .osz would break it), then submit the original .olz version in the contest page as well. In this case, both the original .olz archive and the converted .osz version must be submitted, and it should look something like this:

Before submitting, please check the following:

• Ensure that you have successfully registered for the contest, and that all your team members have confirmed their intent as well if applicable.

  • Your submission will be ignored if you have not successfully registered for the contest.
• Please read the rules thoroughly to check that your entry abides by all of them.
• The person who registered the team must be the one submitting the entry.
• Do not submit your entry via BSS.

Voting

After determining categories, contest listing pages will be created for each category.

The osu! game mode will feature the Visual Spectacle and Innovative Gameplay categories, with 3 votes available per category. osu!taiko, osu!catch, and osu!mania will feature a combined Aspire category, with 1 vote available for osu!taiko and osu!catch, and 2 votes available for osu!mania.

Entries will be anonymised and uploaded to the osu!team account for voting.

After voting closes and results are announced, the ownership of all entries will be transferred to one of the entrants — contestants will be contacted to ask who will be the main set owner.

Votes from mappers will also be tallied up — anyone who has a Ranked mapset or guest difficulty at the time voting ends will be counted as a mapper. Depending on the vote distribution among mappers and non-mappers, awarding a mapper's pick prize alongside the main one will be considered.

General assistance

For any questions or inquiries, contact [email protected].

If your inquiry is urgent and you aren't getting a timely response, please contact Hivie or -Mo- directly.

Rules

Beatmap rules

• This contest is open to the osu!, osu!taiko, osu!catch, and osu!mania game modes.
• The ranking criteria does not apply to this contest.
• You may only map songs from the Featured Artists listing with the following restrictions:

  • You may not choose the songs used in previous winning Aspire entries:

    • Camellia - Arche
    • Camellia - Treaty of Peace between GlitchHop and Moombahcore
    • Culprate - Acid Rain
    • Frums - XNOR XNOR XNOR
    • Function Phantom - Algebra
    • Helblinde - The Solace of Oblivion
    • IAHN - Transform
    • KNOWER - Time Traveler
    • LeaF - Evanescent (but the extended ver. is allowed)
    • LeaF - Mopemope (but the extended ver. is allowed)
    • OISHII - ONIGIRI FREEWAY
    • RiraN - Unshakable
    • Teminite & MDK - Space Invaders
  • You may not choose any songs that have been added to the Featured Artists listing after 14 June 2026.
  • Please use this tool to check whether a Featured Artist song is allowed for use in Aspire 6.
• You may not make any edits to the .mp3 files provided on the Featured Artists listing.
• You may not make any changes to the artist, title, source, or tags of your submission's metadata. The creator field should be set to the user name of the submitter.
• Your entry does not need to be passable. However, your entry may be ineligible for certain categories or prizes if it is not possible to be passed by a human player.
• Your entry must consist of exactly one difficulty that contains an interactive experience — storyboard-only entries aren't allowed.
• You may only participate in one entry for this contest.
• All assets in your entry must either be created by you or be permitted by license or explicit approval to be used. Direct contribution or commission of any part of the entry from a third party is not allowed.
• The size of the compressed archive (.osz/.olz) must be smaller than 5 * 1024^2 + map_length_seconds * 166667 bytes, where map_length_seconds is the end time of the last hit object. The maximum size is 200,000,000 bytes. This corresponds to osu!(lazer)'s beatmap submission limit.

Operational rules

• You may enter as a team of up to 2 people — please register your team via the form here.

  • You may also enter as a solo contestant if you wish.
  • This form uses osu! OAuth to authenticate you. If you're not properly authenticated, your registration will not count. Please follow the instructions on the form carefully.
• You may only be part of one team for this contest.
• Any submitted entry that doesn't have a registration tied to it will be automatically disqualified.
• Entries must be submitted by the person who registered the team in the form.
• Teams and submissions must remain anonymous for the duration of the contest. Do not include any identifiable information in any element of your submission (this does not apply to the creator metadata field).
• Your entry must not be uploaded to the osu! website via the Beatmap Submission System (BSS).
• Your entry must be submitted in .osz format in the contest page, with the following exception:

  • If your entry takes advantage of the .olz beatmap archive format in a significant way, such that converting to .osz would break it, then both the original .olz archive and the converted .osz version must be submitted to the contest page.

Any entries that break these rules may be disqualified from the contest.

Notes