Touhou World Cup - 2024
Touhou World Cup (TWC) is an annual international Touhou shooting game competition, first held in 2020 and held every year since. It is organised by the Touhou gameplay community worldwide. Three teams duke it out on Lunatic and Extra mode, playing on live streams and playing both high score and survival at a high level.
I had the privilege to be part of this year's TWC ! As such, this page mentions my personal experience with TWC and what I thought of it, as well as my feelings towards various topics surrounding it.
My previous experience with TWC
For the longest time I have remained (and still am somewhat) a lurker in the community. However, it changed in the year of 2022 where I watched TWC. There were a bunch of outstanding and impressive matches being held between the best players of the world. I would catch them live whenever possible. Out of all matches, there was one that caught my interest. It was the PCB Lunatic Scoring match. I remember watching the match and being in awe with sp0's skill they presented. The most inspiring part was the final spell-card graze: the insane Resurrection Butterfly graze. It was quite literally jaw-dropping to see them execute that graze at the very end of the game when the stakes are high. I wanted to learn more about the Resurrection Butterfly graze, so sp0 was the first person I contacted which is what made me go from a lurker to a… not-lurker ? No idea what the correct term for that is.
Anyways, the thought of partaking in TWC was out of my mind. Even throughout the Touhou World Cup of the year 2023 I never thought of participating. Live events are scary, especially if you don't have a good self-image about the skill that might be expected from you. Despite it, I was never opposed to signing up. I just didn't have any skills to show, so I didn't.
Why I signed up
The theme of TWC has to do with the three fairies of light: Sunny Milk, Luna Child, and Star Sapphire. The three themes were divided as such, with the following teams existing: Team Sunny, Team Luna, and Team Star. This TWC's theme really caught my attention, hence I signed up ! Yes, that is literally it. There was no other reason.
Chosen category
There were a few categories that caught my eye. Survival seems ruthless to me, so scoring seemed like the only option to pick from. Though, as you may know, I am not the best Touhou player. That of course is not a problem for myself as I play for fun, but that may be a problem when signing up to an event that has incredibly high expectations towards its players. Out of all the categories I have contemplated about, the best category would be DDC Extra ReimuA.
By that time, I was already familiar with DDC ReimuA. I was familiar with the shift tapping rhythm for amulets, and the gohei dupe was second nature for me. I also already knew how to score on the boss and most importantly the mid-boss. I considered the mid-boss to be the hardest section of the entire stage, so that already was a weight lifted off my shoulders. Though, I did not have any strong scores because I had never practiced the post-mid-boss section before. Thankfully the route is pretty linear so it was not too difficult for me to learn it.
Gradual improvements
After signing up, I realised that my current best score was very weak. I ended up spending a few hours per day for a few days on practicing the stage section more. After this, I started streaming some attempts on my Twitch channel. I first got myself a 791m clear, then a 794m clear, and eventually I got a clear with a score of 805m; the first score in the category with no major mistakes !! This wouldn't be the only clear though. During this TWC setting, players are only given 60 minutes to show the world what they can do. My consistency wasn't satisfactory yet, so I kept on practicing and practicing. I would stream random attempts in voice chats, which ended up giving me an 808m clear and an 811m clear.
Some people pointed out that this was close to getting the WR, but beating it was never my primary goal or a goal in general. I had fun with the category, and seeing myself improve at the category is the thing that has been keeping me going. Though, I did give myself the random goal of hitting 820m, but even if I never reached that goal I'd be completely fine. All improvements from the 805m clear up to this clear were gained from performing better bombs for more PIV, as well as better speedkills on spell-cards for more raw score. The only major way to improve my score was to get 3 goheis on Raiko instead of 2 goheis.
On a random Monday morning, I streamed DDC for a bit in a voice chat. Everything went well, but then I suddenly got myself 3 goheis during Raiko's 2nd spell! My heart was pounding like crazy, and my fingers were shivering. This was the first time I got myself a triple gohei in a run, so the stakes were high. There were some scary moments during the run, namely during the 8th non-spell and the final spell-card, but this run ended up clearing with a whopping 821.1m score ! Much later, I would get a score that beats this score… by only 100k. Its score was a 821.2m clear, which I randomly because I wanted to do one attempt while waiting for a modpack download to finish.
The not-so fun part of the 821.1m scorerun
Let's talk about the 821.1m scorerun. …well, not about the run itself, but moreso about the events surrounding this score along with some of the previous scores. You see, I would consider myself to be good at the gohei dupe, but my weakness about this trick is that it is not fully understood. Heck, my page about the gohei dupe is subpar because it does not describe the why part of this glitch ! Although I have some theories as to why the gohei dupe exists in the first place, they are not evidence of the cause of the glitch. Regardless, despite not knowing why something works the way it does, it doesn't mean that one cannot get better at it. As of writing this, I had about 100 hours of ReimuA playtime on my scorefile at the time. Out of the 100 hours, I would say that at least 95% of the time involves messing around with the gohei dupe. I really love doing this trick, so it makes sense to invest a lot of time into it, and of course the more time you spend on a trick the better you become at it.
Regardless, there have been some people out there who have are skeptical of my skills and as such I got interrogated by the party (if you are reading this, you know who you are). But off course, I will not disclose with which party I have been involved with or which people it consists of. Regardless, the party in question suspected me of utilising some kind of key-macro that allows for one-frame taps. But surprisingly, the examples they provided were from runs such as but not limited to my Mountain of Faith Speedrun of both Extra and Lunatic, and my 3130 graze on Resurrection Butterfly, with none of the examples being about the gohei dupe. Respectfully, my experience with the party in question was okay-ish for the most part, as they addressed the situation in a clear and mostly formal way to me. But to be honest, I did feel not feel comfortable with them. Realistically, it was a mixed bag of the uncomfortableness along with the entire situation itself. Because the cheating situation felt as an intentional sabotage done by an individual (who was not part of the interrogation) who wanted to intentionally sabotage my chances of partaking in this TWC event, it was very much not fun for me to deal with this situation and has affected me severely.
Preparation for TWC
Throughout April-July I would periodically play the category to stay in shape. My personal goal for TWC was to get a clear that does not involve any major mistakes. A run that doesn't have any major mistakes scores around the 810m score mark +- 2m score. Although this is one of the fastest categories for scoring, it doesn't imply it is an easy category. You see, the route I am following involves no major mistakes. If I miss a 2.0 or if I ever have an unintentional death, it is an instant reset. This has to do with the strict resource route that barely clears with exactly 8 lives and 6 bombs.
There are a few choke points throughout the stage. Here are the stage sections I fail the most:
- The gohei dupe on the mid-boss is the hardest gohei dupe to execute since you have to be a lot higher than with other dupes. On top of this, you have to hope that all goheis are damaging Benben Goheis drift into a seemingly-random direction, so if they go to Yatsuhashi it means that the speedkill will not work. Additionally, you must do it fast enough to get 7 fairies or more after the 2nd mid-spell-card, or else it is a reset.
- The "bridging" section, which is the second-to last 2.0 before Raiko. This 2.0 is notorious for me as I need to precisely time my gohei timings, or otherwise I will lose control on it.
- Raiko's first spell. This spell can be very annoying especially as ReimuA. I don't dupe on this spell because that's a death sentence, and I've lost a number of paces to this before because the waves can get annoying.
- Raiko's 2nd spell. This is because I need to setup a dupe on this, and while this only saves 2 seconds at most, it's something that gives a decent chunk of score. While I don't die to this as much, losing out on the score is a make it or break it situation.
- Raiko's 3rd non-spell. For me, if I want to PB I need to hit a triple gohei on this, or else the run is likely to die. For TWC, I'm fine with just 2, but this non-spell gives barely any set-up time for the gohei dupe, so there is a chance I will not get any. Not getting the dupe isn't a problem as I can try again during the spell, but this non-spell is quite difficult and I have to dodge a wave at the top generally.
- Raiko's final. While ReimuA absolutely demolishes this spell, it can still give scary waves! Even though you dodge so little, the waves can really screw you over still and this spell should not be underestimated. I've had a number of double KOs to this spell.
Those are the sections I practiced the most, with emphasis on the mid-boss and Raiko's 3rd non-spell. I would also do credits on occasion just so that I would get used to them.
The TWC match
This section is going to talk about my experience before, during, and after the TWC match. If you want to watch the match yourself, you can do so here !
Before the TWC match
A good night's sleep is essential to feel fit, so I went to bed early (midnight) so I could be awake for my match (8 hours later, at 8am). However, I could not sleep at all lol. I was wide awake for the entire 7 hours in bed, and I didn't feel that great when I got out of bed. I went out for a short walk and had breakfast, but I think that breakfast contained something bad because I felt very sick during and after my breakfast. On top of this, for whatever reason my timer kept getting stuck so I had to last minute follow some instructions to fix it. I initially thought I was well-prepared, but all odds seemed against me.
During the TWC match
Throughout the match I just played like how I usually would, except my heartrate was constantly around the 130BMP mark because this is TWC. I didn't pay any attention to what my scores my opponents got, and I didn't pay any attention to any messages. I was pretty much focused on DDC with the only goal of clearing in my mind.
About the match itself, I threw quite literally blacked out at the start of the run - I forgot how to do the intro section and I instead resorted to some route I made a year prior lol. I kept dying to the part before the mid-boss a lot and honestly I don't know why. Surprisingly, throughout my attempts I did far above my average on the mid-boss ! All successful dupes were dupes where the gohei would still target Benben (which is RNG dependent as far as I know), and on top of this I never ever died to the second mid-spell !! I usually die to it about half the time, but this time my dodging was pretty good. Sometimes I would reset immediately after the mid-boss because I noticed my speedkill was too late which means I got 6 fairies instead of 7 or above. If I made a mistake on the post-mid-boss section I would still continue in the hopes of a triple gohei on Raiko.
About halfway in the match I had an average run into Raiko. I always try to triple gohei during Raiko's opener. This allows for a more consistent clear as all attacks die before they become a threat. During the dialogue, I used a normalised set-up that guarantees I am at a height that allows for triple gohei. Sometimes I could be at the correct height range but duping is really difficult, so this process eliminates that I am in such a deadzone. I then practiced the tapping during the dialogue to warm up my muscles. I then used four trials of duping, and on the last one I managed to get the triple gohei ! …but during the run I did not know this because I was focussed on dodging. Only until Raiko entered her first spell-card did I notice that it was a triple gohei. I was nervous: I could already hear the cheating accusations coming up, but I remained steady and played it very safe by going for a No Miss No Bomb Raiko fight. Exactly four minutes later, I cleared the stage with 811,125,790 score. This clear alleviated a lot of pressure because this means I'm no longer at the risk of getting a Did Not Finish (DNF) status.
Around this time is when the nausea really started to kick in. Whenever I would try for a dupe it would be painful, not for my fingers/hand/arm, but in my stomach out of all places because of the vibrations. It wasn't fun to deal with, and this probably caused me to perform worse, but hey at least I had gotten myself a good clear before ! The second half of the match was just me trying to combat my stomach pain while trying to get another run into Raiko. My performance on the mid-boss was exceptionally good, but the performance on the post-mid-boss section was not so good. I lost a lot of potential runs to random things I never lost to before. Despite this, I managed to get one more clear on the final run ! Its score was 810,973,150 score, which was only 152,650 away from beating the previous run ! In retrospect, it is cooler for the triple gohei run to outscore the double gohei score despite both scoring roughly the same.
After the TWC match
I was still in stomach pain, so I ended the stream and I submitted the replay. Seeing how I hadn't slept for some time, and how I was in pain from after breakfast, there is only one logical thing to do: go back to bed play Wynncraft for the next few hours ! Anyways after that I just went to bed - I don't think I checked the results of the match immediately afterwards, but when I woke up I did check the results and the stream. It was very painful to see Aseb die to the spells. Throughout the match I was secretly hoping that he could get a PB and win, but it was painful to watch Gastari jinx the match yet again…
Closing thoughts
It was a rollercoaster of events. The cheating suspicions were not fun, but it is understandable: if you are good at a difficult skill that others cannot do and may get jealous of, I can definitely see why. In the end, I'm glad I signed up for TWC. It was fun to play through the category, and I'm glad I managed to get a clear during TWC !
A cool blog I found
If you would like to read about someone else's experience with TWC, then click on this link to read more ! It is a Japanese blog post by one of the committee members Icebreaker (砕氷) who goes into detail about their experience in the committee.