It’s officially (according to the calendar) the changing of the seasons, and before I ship off for my last tournament of the year in Redshift: Encore, I wanted to take a second to at least summarize some of the stuff I’ve been up to. I scrambled to get some material up, said I was doing it to hold myself accountable for putting content on the blog, and promptly got sidetracked with everything else going on. While I did at least get to publish my thoughts when Accelerate was announced (by testing a post deployment on a very unconventional computing stack primarily using a Steam Deck), there’s been a lot I wanted to cover more in real-time over the summer season that simply did not materialize.
Of course, a lot of this time was spent keeping an ear to the ground on the StepManiaX community, especially the spread of events I couldn’t fit into my personal travel schedule, and plenty of my energy went towards actually playing the game. From a personal standpoint, I’ve been quite happy with how the summer has treated me to date!
Let me walk you through what’s been up since I launched this blog.
The Perfect Score Grindstone
When talking about myself or my own performance in StepManiaX, I almost always put emphasis on my efforts to pick up as many perfect scores (or APCs) as possible. It’s the aspect of the game that I find the most engaging and the most enjoyable - specifically the process of building the understanding and consistent execution to get a target score. This year has seen me putting in considerable time investment to close out perfect runs on much harder content than I’ve typically focused on in the past, mostly because there isn’t anything left to do but work on the harder content the game has to offer.
A little bit of context for those less familiar: near the very end of 2025, I managed to seal the deal on one of my white whale accomplishments for the game: a perfect sweep of the entirety of Hard difficulty. Getting to the coveted three-to-five way leaderboard tie with a perfect game necessitated I land the perfect score on MAX428 Hard, a feat only shared with four other players at the time of writing.
I was a little excited about the achievement, and to show some friends the VOD, source from a scuffed security camera recording. Truly an incredible video to have on hand.
Every year I’ve played StepManiaX, I’ve managed some sort of insane-to-me buzzer-beater achievement at the very end of the year, often in the awkward time period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. MAX428 Hard was 2025’s closing, crowning achievement, and set me up with the expectation that I’d be able to maintain a perfect standing going forward (short of something with comparable, or worse, difficulty dropping into the game).
Where Do You Go But Up?
On that note, I’ve been able to keep pace and meet my baseline expectations for any given chart throughout 2026. I’m actually fairly surprised I’ve kept pace with Wild mode! Out of everything released this year, I’m only missing perfect scores on Wild on what I think are the three hardest charts to execute: Nyaw, On My Own (Nostalgix & ALRT), and Oasis. The first is the hardest singles chart to sustain this year (being a speed-oriented 25), the second is probably the hardest to time this year with its focus on heavily syncopated swing rhythms, and the last one on this shortlist targets a weakness of mine (which I’m hoping to keep working on and revisit in the future).
I’m happiest about the three most recent content updates at the time of writing, however - ten total songs, released in proximity, to celebrate the team’s involvement on the show floor at gamescom. I closed out the perfect score on all ten of these songs, including the modest yet technical Kingdom Wild, the latest edition to Wild mode’s growing collection of level 24 charts.
‘That’s the power of learning from your mistakes.’
While I’ve seen a lot of player sentiment that Kingdom Wild isn’t quite as demanding (physically or technically) as most of its rating neighbors, I’m still very happy with being able to pick apart the chart and find a path to a perfect score on the first day I got to play it.
Kingdom Wild joins six other Wild 24s which I’ve perfected this year, now up to eight total. While every perfect score at the upper end of Wild feels like a huge accomplishment to me, I’m very satisfied with a couple of pickups in particular: RAD, Far Out, Neptune the First, and I See makes me feel like I’ve broken past “introductory” Wild 24s and picked up perfect scores that express considerable skill and ability. Far Out Wild is particularly noteworthy to me - especially when I left a social gathering to tell my friends I was going to a nearby arcade and that I would not stop “until I saw a perfect score, or saw heaven”.
Doubles
Putting aside discussion of single-pad modes, I haven’t been investing a ton of time into the double-pad modes as of late (Dual and Full). I’ve picked up some good stuff for new personal bests in Full mode getting reps in prior to Redshift, but otherwise my desire to optimize the double pad modes ebbs and flows rather erratically.
Dual mode has always been something I’ve steadily worked on, owing to the fact it’s a lot of leaderboard points with a huge volume of charts to play (over 800 of them now) spread across a range of difficulties that skews easier than Full mode does. Working on perfect scores from the bottom up in Dual has been frustrating at times over the last three years. There’s quite a few charts which are older and follow different charting philosophies than newer releases on the mode, and often times they make for frustrating score grinds rather than purely rewarding ones.
Despite my personal feelings about quite a few charts in the mode, though, I’ve steeled myself enough to finish perfect scores on every single Dual chart level 20 and lower! Some of those last few Dual 20s were quite difficult, but I found a particular stride over the summer that let me close out what I had left. I’ve also kept pace with almost everything released this year on the mode too, and have been enjoying a comfortable Top 5 leaderboard spot for some time.
I don’t think I will be focusing on Dual again for a bit - the remaining charts to get perfect scores on (38 total at the time of writing) are really difficult for score. It’s proving difficult to push for new personal bests on my bottom five in the mode, too - and I feel like Dual is where I am starting to push against a hard limit on potential ability. Full mode feels like there’s still a lot of room to grow (and lots of leaderboard points to achieve), and there is a good chance it will be my focus once I’m back from Redshift. There are a few more Full 22s and 23s I believe I can close out perfect scores on, and some candidates for a Full 24 perfect score too.
Tournament Showings
Outside of the constant effort towards picking up new perfect scores, I’m continuing to travel for events to see how I stack up against my peers and to get more commentary blocks in wherever I go. This year has been particularly dry on events, so I was quite happy to have a few things back to back on my calendar over the summer!
Midsummer Melody and CEO Project Storm were two of the biggest tournaments to date this year, and I placed satisfactorily at both. Midsummer Melody saw me closing out at 7th out of 41 entrants, and CEO saw me reach 9th out of 49 entrants. Both these placements were at or above where I was seeded to perform, so there’s comfort in knowing that I am placing about where I am expected to do so.
My current issue with tournament settings is tapping into my maximum ability on command, and I feel like I’m making a lot of amateur-ish mistakes in my execution. I’m still able to make things work with a combination of card draw savvy against most of my opponents, but a lack of consistency is definitely holding me back from deeper runs into Top 8. The most defeating mistake was executing a pattern incorrectly on Temple of Boom to drop my first set of the day at CEO against MaestroGee - although that loss set me up on a better loser’s side run, whereas the win would have made me wait for hours to play cold against MarkJ. A silver lining in all things, I suppose.
When I play at my peak, things like this new-to-me perfect score happens. Now imagine if I could do this every time I played a familiar chart in a tournament setting…
As always, though, tournaments are more than just competition to me. They are opportunities to see friends, cut loose from regular life responsibilities for a weekend, and to network with peers of mine in other games. Both events I attended this summer were great times and opportunities to meet folks from all over. I’m very excited to be heading back out to Las Vegas for another great weekend with the dance game community.
Sponsored by Red Note Gaming
On the subject of Redshift and the Red Note Las Vegas venue, I figure this is a good place as any to quickly talk about my membership on Team Red Note Gaming! I’ve had a couple of quick words to say here and there on tournament broadcasts and on my social media pages, but I wanted to write a little longer about it somewhere.
First and foremost, I’m beyond excited about the opportunity to be on the organization’s initial roster. Red October 2023 was my first foray into competitive dance games, and I feel like planning a short-notice Las Vegas trip for that event was one of the most pivotal and life-changing decisions I’ve ever made. I have enjoyed dance games as exercise, entertainment, a social avenue, and a higher sense of “purpose” in a way since then. Red Note Las Vegas was a slick venue, and I’m extremely grateful for the staff there for not only convincing me to come out for an event when I visited during EVO 2023, but for then welcoming me back in later years from the logistical side for commentary. To be considered and invited for the team as the organization looks to expand its representation in the competitive dance game community is an honor beyond what words can express.
While the arrangement is simple and without much obligation at present (mostly a new group chat and a cool jersey at this time!), it’s still very exciting to represent the organization. I feel it’s lended a sense of legitimacy to my effort investment in the broader dance game community. It’s a nice added bonus that the other members of the roster are folks I’ve befriended and worked closely with for event logistics in the StepManiaX scene all along, too - and being able to directly discuss and organize with logistical assistance from the Red Note organization is an incredible perk.
Red Note’s flag is one I am more than happy to fly. There’s great potential to build from here, and I hope other folks can be excited about this just as I am.
More Airwaves Yet To Come
Many of my friends in the scene are well aware how frequently I’ve griped about being tired, busy, or both throughout this year. While it seems like StepManiaX and dance game-related matters are my life, the reality is I have other obligations and commitments beyond these games. I’ve been quite occupied with other affairs in my personal life, and that’s been a huge dampener on Doing Things (especially with respect to this blog). Ultimately, when I do have time to myself, a lot of it is simply spent playing SMX to further my personal goals with the game. That has been to the detriment of things like this blog, unfortunately.
The good news is my ability to commit time to personal projects (like this website) is improving, and I hope to stay a little more on top of happenstances going forward! I have outlines for tournament recaps for every event I kept eyes on over the summer, and I also would like to get some summaries and opinion pieces out about news in the StepManiaX world in short order as well. I’ll try and squeeze in an article or two before I leave for Redshift, but no promises. I am certain I’ll have plenty to write about regarding Redshift anyway.
Another commitment I want to reinforce is my Twitch stream. I do play a fair bit on my own Twitch channel, and you can find quite a few VODs and plenty of live-time chart analysis by tuning in. Follows are free and I don’t expect any commitment from anyone, but I’m always appreciative of anyone who tunes in, chats, or subscribes. I recently upgraded my streaming PC hardware too, so new VODs going forward should be in an acceptable 1080p and generally much more pleasant to watch.
I’ve also spun up a Discord server focused on the stream, but I’ll also likely talk about subjects for the blog there too before they become full-on posts. There’ll also be occassional smaller updates across my social pages (linked from the landing page of the blog), and plenty of idle chatter anywhere else I can found in the community. That’s just how it is.
The 4th Quarter Mad Dash
As I mentioned earlier in this update, I’ve always had a tendency to pull out some manner of insane personal achievement right at the end of the year, every year. I’ve had some incredible momentum on in-game achievements lately, so I think there’s a good chance I can keep pushing and surprise myself before 2026 sees itself out fully. I’m currently on pace to hit 400 total Wild perfect scores and potentially 4,000 overall perfect scores - it’s looking difficult to achieve by the end of the calendar year, but things worth doing are often challenging. Redshift is almost certainly my last tournament of the year, so I’ll be able to play without feeling constrained to a specific area of focus for a good few months and see which avenue is best suited for that achievement.
I do plan on investing some time in other dance games soon too; cross-training dance games is a great way to reinforce particular skills, and I do often dabble in the other big arcade dance games for that reason. A foray into the ITL 2026 Doubles pack on ITGmania is still in the cards. Perhaps that will be a worthwhile few sessions immediately after Redshift is concluded.
Lastly, I’ve been making arrangements to attend IAAPA Expo again this year. I’m very appreciative of the Step Revolution team for facilitating a visit last year to assist with demonstrating and promoting the game to more business customers! Trade shows are excellent places to network with players and prospective customers for cabinets, and having the opportunity to show my love for the game in a way that supports it directly is quite incredible. Quite a few of us got to play material from Content Update #70 a few days ahead of release last year - maybe there will be more pre-release glimpses to share this go around.
This last quarter of the year is going to be busy for what I expect will be relative “downtime” in my life, but there’s a lot to be excited for and I can’t wait to get into the thick of it all.
(And hopefully you’ll hear about it more in real time rather than needing to wait a whole other quarter!)