Welcome to the CF Rocksmith 2014 Championship!

-= Week 673 =-

=> How and Why join the Championships?
=> Rocksmith 2014 Championships rules

Previous' week Winners are:

Lead:
-Beginner: @Decaquark (99.59)
-Intermediate: @FlatCap Jay (97)
-Intermediate Bonus: @jimmy655 94.56)
-Advanced: @Mikson 97.78)
-Masterclass: @shaggy_malagy (91)

Rhythm:
- Beginner: @Decaquark (98)
- Intermediate: @ALSRC (91)
- Intermediate Bonus: @ALSRC (88)
- Advanced: @jimmy655 (95.64)
- Masterclass: @cacahuate51 (95.44)

Bass:
- Beginner: @Decaquark 99.38)
- Intermediate: @EmbraceTheAbsurd (95)
- Intermediate Bonus: @EmbraceTheAbsurd (96)
- Advanced: @Mikson (98)
- Masterclass: @Nomgoose (97.24)
- Masterclass Bonus: @pedropmf (99.59)

Congrats to all winners. Well done!

More great news. There are players to be promoted to higher rank this week.

- @theMaelstro is promoted to Intermediate class in Lead path.

-@AstronaStrums is promoted to Masterclass class in Bass path.
- @PlanetFinesse will now be competing in masterclass class all paths

@Knippenburg Has joined the championship and will be participating in Advanced Bass class.

Congratulations and good luck with new challenges!
In case the above players do not accept promotion, please advise accordingly in the post so we can revert back to previous Class.

This week's songs are:

Lead Path:
Beginner:Less Than Jake - Hopeless Case(3*)(E Standard)selected byca51
Beginner Bonus:Bowling For Soup - Girl all the Bad Guys Want(4.5^)(Drop D)selected byca15
Intermediate:Taking Back Sunday - MakeDamnSure(4.5)(Eb Standard)selected byca51[just now noticed rodman had a version aswell, only have played pavs though]
Intermediate Bonus: Santana - Maria Maria(6^) (5^) ((E Standard)selected byca51
Advanced:Atreyu - Right Side of the Bed(6.5)(D Drop C)selected byca51
Advanced Bonus:Mayday Parade - I'd Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About(6.5)(Drop D)selected byca51
Masterclass:Every Time I Die - Leatherneck(8)(Drop D)selected byDrand[R.I.P Andy Williams (Rhythm guitarist)]
Masterclass Bonus:Yellowcard - The Takedown(8)(Drop D)selected byca51
God of Guitar:The Black Dahlia Murder - Nocturnal (Full Album)(10)(C Standard)selected byNomgoose[Week 1 of 3]

Rhythm Path:
Beginner: Santana - Maria Maria (3*) (E Standard) selected by ca51
Beginner Bonus: Less Than Jake - Hopeless Case(3.5) (3*) (E Standard) selected by ca51
Intermediate: Taking Back Sunday - MakeDamnSure (4.5) (Eb Standard) selected by ca51
Intermediate Bonus: Bowling For Soup - Girl all the Bad Guys Want (4) (Drop D) selected by ca51 [different cdlc from last week played 39]
Advanced: Atreyu - Right Side of the Bed (5) (D Drop C) selected by ca51
Advanced Bonus: Mayday Parade - I'd Hate to Be You When People Find Out What This Song Is About (6) (Drop D) selected by ca51
Masterclass: Every Time I Die - Leatherneck (8) (Drop D) selected by Drand [R.I.P Andy Williams (Rhythm guitarist)]
God of Rhythm: The Black Dahlia Murder - Nocturnal (Full Album) (9) (C Standard) selected by Nomgoose [Week 1 of 3]

Bass Path:
Beginner: Bowling For Soup - Girl all the Bad Guys Want (3*) (Drop D) selected by ca51
Beginner Bonus: Santana - Maria Maria(3.5) (3*) (B Standard) selected by ca51
Intermediate: Taking Back Sunday - MakeDamnSure (4) (Eb Standard) selected by ca51
Intermediate Bonus: Less Than Jake - Hopeless Case (4) (E Standard) selected by ca51
Advanced: Save Ferris - Come On Eileen (5) (E Standard) selected by ca51
Advanced Bonus: Atreyu - Right Side of the Bed (4.5) (4) (D Drop C) selected by ca51
Masterclass: Masayoshi Takanaka - Oh! Tengo Suerte (8.5) (E Standard) selected by ca51
Masterclass Bonus: Christell - Dubidubidu (Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa) (7.5) (E Standard) selected by ca51
God of Bass: The Black Dahlia Murder - Nocturnal (Full Album) (8) (C Standard) selected by Nomgoose [Week 1 of 3]

(N) - difficulty rating
(N*) - highest difficulty rating for the class (promotion to higher class possible)
(N^) - difficulty rating higher than the highest for the class (promotion possible)

If you have different difficulty ratings for the songs make sure to fill this form out, I will do an average of the results to balance it at the end of the week

Check current week Rocksmith Championship Leaderboard

You can submit your song suggestions for the championship here
NEW! - easly add songs even on your mobile!:
Add Song Suggestion

Song Suggestions List available to view here: Google Sheets Spreadsheet

Share with us your opinion on this weeks songs difficulty scores (1-10).

Do you want to host a week? Join the Championship organizing team!!!
The process is smooth and there is a tutorial as well. If you are interested, send a personal message to Rodman.

@Mikson for that part of the "Atreyu - Right Side of the Bed" solo: hold the previous 12G bend and tap 15G pull-off to the prebend 12G, tap 17G and pull-off to the prebend 12G, etc. (hold the bend on 12G with finger 3 and tap with picking hand). Hope that helps. 👍

NEW THIS WEEK

Welcome to the championship, @Knippenburg!

Would you like to start off in Advanced Bass or a different difficulty?

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ANNIVERSARIES

Congratulations @JobwanMojo, it's your 2-year anniversary since joining the Championship! Week 570 was your first.

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Bass (8) omg what hurts more brainrot brain or the picking hand 😅

Rhythm (8) long long long

13 hours ago, drand said:

Would you like to start off in Advanced Bass or a different difficulty?

Advanced sounds good to me 👍 Thank you.

Revised score on this one

3 hours ago, Knippenburg said:

Advanced sounds good to me 👍 Thank you.

Revised score on this one

Looks like she has placed you there. Congrats on the score and welcome to advanced/championship! 🥳

Rhythm

3

3.5

4/4.5

Here, basically only power chords, most of them are played with one finger in Drop D tuning. More like 3/3.5 than 4.

This also seemed a bit too easy for a 5. More like a 4.5.

6.5

8

Lead (8) album runs are just crazy experience

Bass (8.5)

This is so much fun to play for a song where I can't even score 90%....

"+" lead

Guitar scores

Bit of an earlier submission this week, won't be around tomorrow or Saturday so getting this done now - no @drand reminder email for me this week!

This was a great theme, really enjoyed these songs.

Saw these guys in a tent at Download Festival back in 2019, they put on one hell of a show!

Another band who do a great show, saw them twice in one day with the second being an acoustic set with them all pretty damn drunk. To quote their singer, "We've been drinking all day with Monster Magnet...they are not nice people". Always guaranteed a good time when you see them.

Also, used to cover this song back in the day with my band so it was good to roll back the years!

This was my main focus this week, absolutely love this song. Funnily enough, I only just submitted Bleeding Mascara from the same album to the Championship, it's a beast of a track as well.

As always, arpeggios are just one of my many downfalls...

I'd never heard this one before, Yellowcard to me just brings me back to playing SSX 3 and hoping for Way Away to come on!

Hopefully I'll manage to get some time to give Nocturnal a go this week, we are adopting a puppy this weekend so that might be wishful thinking but it's always good to be optimistic!

All the best with your scores everyone!

I had only played this on fretless before, wanted to take a run on fretted. Still messed it up..

This one has been killing me on guitar, bass is sometimes a relief..

But other times bass is no relief at all... but tomorrow is another day....

Happy Friday everyone! 😊

Only one day left to join this week's Championship ⏰

LAST ACTIVE 1 WEEK AGO

@Daz40 was on a 9-week play streak last week (longest: 32 weeks)!

@aNDESmASAMUNE was on a 4-week play streak last week (longest: 14 weeks)!

@FlatCap Jay was on a 4-week play streak last week (longest: 25 weeks)!

@EmbraceTheAbsurd was on a 27-week play streak last week (their longest streak yet)!

@Decaquark was on a 1-week play streak last week (their longest streak yet)!

LAST ACTIVE 2 WEEKS AGO

@MaZtoR

@RaZrShReD

@LuZifeR

@MotivatedCF

Have a great weekend if we don't see ya! 😁

Holyyy, my hands hurts! :D

🎶🎸🌘 CHAMPIONSHIP NIGHT!!!! 🍻

YEEAAHHH!!! ✌😎✌🤩✌😎✌🤩
Thank you always @cacahuate51 !!!

And... VIVA MÉXICO!!! (I should add that we will always remain an independent country!! You may know why I feel the need to say that.)

Thank you @drand for the streak reminder.

I am late again to the party and won't be able to play tomorrow. Lets see what I can do... 😅

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As a Japanese-Mexican, I am happy Masayoshi Takanaka is performing in Mexico! Honestly I didnt know about him and discovered his music here in Ignition4. Apparently he was very famous in the early 80s.

This was really tough for me!!! Specially the slides!! I barely survived the score attack. 😅

On 9/13/2026 at 8:18 PM, PlanetFinesse said:

https://youtu.be/6bYGPJsHT-Y?si=kvZ2vY0GGZw7yGNv

Do you need more guitars? I can sell my guitars to you. I dont want to play anymore :D Amazing playing!

This is suppossed to be intermediate (5) but after a quick RR I still could not get to the 90s!!! 🤣🤣🤣
I am a struggling "advanced" player, and I would agree with @drand that this is a (6).

I have been planning to write my "theories" to the Compendium, but here is my theory regarding the SOLOS, for your consideration ( @cacahuate51@Rodman @Mikson , please let me know what you think!! ) :

BEGINNER: Basically NO SOLOS. Only easy repetitive riffs or little melodies, both with very limited number of notes.

INTERMEDIATE: This level is about learning to play riffs, and it is an introductory level to solos. Intermediate players have developed a small comfort zone on the fretboard, probably limited to the lower-pitch strings in the lower frets up to fret 9 or 7. Playing a solo in frets higher than 10 or 12 feels like a big challenge away from the comfort zone. Intermediate level songs may have solos, provided that the positions are limited to maybe one or two, so that the player can learn them while developing a comfort zone in the higher frets. The speed of the solos should be moderate, and with limited string skipping or arpeggios.

ADVANCED: This level includes the journey to mastering solos and developing a mastery over most of the fretboard, as well as mastering string skipping and arpegios. That means the level of difficulty from 6 to 7 can be very wide. Arguably, the majority of songs in Rocksmith with solos may belong to this category. Any solo can be included provided that it is just BELOW the level of virtuoso. (I still need to define in words the boundary with masterclass, since I very far from there yet!!!)

2 minutes ago, aNDESmASAMUNE said:

This is suppossed to be intermediate (5) but after a quick RR I still could not get to the 90s!!! 🤣🤣🤣
I am a struggling "advanced" player, and I would agree with @drand that this is a (6).

I have been planning to write my "theories" to the Compendium, but here is my theory regarding the SOLOS, for your consideration ( @cacahuate51@Rodman @Mikson , please let me know what you think!! ) :

BEGINNER: Basically NO SOLOS. Only easy repetitive riffs or little melodies, both with very limited number of notes.

INTERMEDIATE: This level is about learning to play riffs, and it is an introductory level to solos. Intermediate players have developed a small comfort zone on the fretboard, probably limited to the lower-pitch strings in the lower frets up to fret 9 or 7. Playing a solo in frets higher than 10 or 12 feels like a big challenge away from the comfort zone. Intermediate level songs may have solos, provided that the positions are limited to maybe one or two, so that the player can learn them while developing a comfort zone in the higher frets. The speed of the solos should be moderate, and with limited string skipping or arpeggios.

ADVANCED: This level includes the journey to mastering solos and developing a mastery over most of the fretboard, as well as mastering string skipping and arpegios. That means the level of difficulty from 6 to 7 can be very wide. Arguably, the majority of songs in Rocksmith with solos may belong to this category. Any solo can be included provided that it is just BELOW the level of virtuoso. (I still need to define in words the boundary with masterclass, since I very far from there yet!!!)

Jap. Adv/Mc... solos easily make a song MC for the speed and technical sections eg switching into a two-handed tapping section in an already fast solo...

I think there are and have been at least as many MC solos in the CS as Adv ones

Good so far - please add to the Compendium

On 9/14/2026 at 4:02 PM, Rodman said:

Unexpectedly but wonderful - finally the CS is beginning to be implemented into ignition!

:)

We´ll keep you updated on .... updates

Congratulations @Rodman and congratulations everyone!!!

And as a famous uncle said "With great power comes great responsability"!!!!

I think this is a great opportuny for all of us to work on the Compedium!

On 9/13/2026 at 7:18 PM, PlanetFinesse said:

https://youtu.be/6bYGPJsHT-Y?si=kvZ2vY0GGZw7yGNv

Oh boy.... anybody needs a bunch of guitars, yes - that's nothing but supreme playing.

Keep those coming - damn inspiring.

On 9/15/2026 at 6:53 AM, Mikson said:

Wow, that’s really cool! I hadn't noticed it before, even though I see it's been around for a few weeks.

But now we have to pay even closer attention to grades, so expect me to be a pain in the neck, haha 😄

I don't know if the ratings you see there are added when creating the week topic and take into account later editions or not? If not, the song should be tested and rated by more than one tester before the week begins, to avoid a highly subjective diff rating.

For example, this week host @cacahuate51 rated Santana's song a 4, while @drand gave it a 6 and @Rodman a 7, an extremely wide discrepancy!

I totally agree with you that we have to pay even closer attention to grades!!! 👍👍

However, let's never make it personal or scold someone for their "mistakes"!! Remember that we are all doing volunteer work! I have been involved in volunteer work before, and the moment you scold someone, that person loses all motivation and usually never shows up again... Also, we should not be like the old-school teachers here in Japan who don't take the time to explain things clearly with words, but the moment you make a mistake, they scold you!

Learning the ratings actually takes a lot of time and experience, and it is still subjective to a certain point. We are very grateful to have you @Mikson with your very consistent criteria about the ratings. So whenever you disagree with a rating, please take it as an opportunity to explain why a song belongs in a certain category instead of calling it a mistake.

And as I wrote above, ideally it should all be explained in the Compendium!!!