RESULTS

In cases where one of the TOTAL or AVERAGE values was tied but the other was not, the remaining value was used to break the tie.
The top three in TOTAL ranking are dandeless & AYhaz's rage bait (with BGA by Yosk!) at first place, then numuto's CΦLLAPSE and 9-zen's フロートアイランズのアカペラ, tied for second place. Additionally, 42SoL's the farewell is the BMS with the highest average rating, at an impressively perfect 2.00. Congratulations to these BMS on an especially successful performance.

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The idea for FREE BATTLE came because it seemed like there would be a large portion around late spring to early summer where there would be no unrestricted event for BMS creators to post BMS and receive comments and ratings. (This didn't happen at the end, but at the time, it was uncertain whether or not MUMEI Academy would be hosted as well as Mumeisen and A-1!) The nearest events to Mumeisen were GENRE SHUFFLE 4 and 偽名BMS作家異世界転生バトル！, which each come with their own restrictions, Although there is a site called pupuly that allows free publishing of BMS at any time and has an evaluation system, I think comments and ratings on pupuly are (sadly) increasingly rare, whereas events not only draw in the most players, but inherently offer a form of motivation for the community to come together and make BMS. (Personally I would like to see the revival of activity on pupuly regardless, but that is besides the point here.) Additionally, on the creator side, I had recently been feeling a lot of stress when it came to meeting registration deadlines for BMS events, and wanted to see how it would turn out if artists could take it easy and register their BMS at nearly any time during the event. I also thought this had the potential to make the event feel more open to surprise if BMS could pop up in the venue suddenly even during the impression period, which had the potential to be interesting. The intent was a low-stress event where BMS creators would be free to express themselves however they want, hence the name FREE BATTLE.

Scores in the impression system were streamlined to just LOVE (1 point) and SUPERLOVE (2 points). In general I think scores in BMS events tend to trend toward only higher numbers being given out as scores, and I also think there is a slight social pressure to give out high scores. My thought was that by reducing the scale to just 2 points, players would feel no pressure to give out higher scores as the lowest score would not be seen as a negative to receive, but players would still be able to give out an extra bonus to the BMS they liked the most. This was inspired by some of the oldest BMS events, which ran on a 0 - 2 point scale, but I thought having 0 points as an option did not fit the spirit of a free and open event as it might make BMS creators feel as if they wasted their time if they signed up only to receive impressions that give them no points at all.

Personally, I'm satisfied with this system and would probably use it in future events I host as well. I believe it puts the focus on the text contained in the impression over the score itself, while still including enough of a competitive element to make scores and rankings exciting to follow for BMS fans who are interested in that sort of thing. Of course, this event was never going to be too competitive to begin with - the very concept of the long registration period meant that BMS that popped up near the very end were going to have very little time for players to post impressions on them, resulting in them having a large disadvantage in terms of TOTAL ranking and unlikely to have enough data for AVERAGE to be meaningful, so the rankings are more for the fun of it than anything else. (This matches my view of BMS events in general where competition exists but isn't meant to be taken too seriously.)

I think the event was successful overall. There were both BMS that the artists were looking for a place to release and I think BMS that were made because the event made the artists want to make a BMS, which is good. I think the "free" aspect came out noticeably in the registered BMS, too; there were both unique original tracks and various copy BMS you wouldn't expect to see elsewhere. It felt like everybody was just doing what they wanted, allowing their own personality and preferences to come out, which I think is fun as it showcases the range of the BMS community.

If I have any concern, it is that impression turnout wasn't all that high compared to some other events, and I suspect this is because the rules of the event meant players couldn't download a full package until 24 hours before the event ended. So, if I hosted an event with this system again in the future, I might increase the period where registration is closed but the impression period is still ongoing to 48 or 72 hours instead of just 24. I also wonder if it would have been better to post on the social media account for the event a little more to remind people - I am not somebody who posts on social media too often so this generally slipped my mind. I'm not sure if it really matters though. Finally, after the event ended, it was pointed out to me that it would be more considerate to players' schedules to end the impression period at the end of the weekend, which is something I will definitely take into account in the future.

As for whether or not I actually will host this event again in the future, I'm not sure. I wasn't planning on it next year, but maybe the year after? That's a long way off. If I organize an event next year I might like to try organizing something with a specific theme, but I think I will be too busy with other projects regardless. I really would like to have more FREE BATTLE events at some point though as I think it fulfills a nice niche in the event ecosystem. In any case, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in the event in some form, whether it be registering, leaving impressions or just helping me set everything up. I hope everyone had fun!