Firework by Cherry Team [MY FINAL HARDEST DEMON]

THUMBNAIL BY ‪@ThePrixito‬

holy shit. where do i even begin with this. i remember sitting in my car literally at the end of 2021 on a road trip watching the firework verification video. at the time, my hardest was nine circlex and i thought that if i ever beat cataclysm, that i would be satisfied and stop playing the game. i cant put into words how insane the next 2 and a half years of playing this game have been for me. ive reached even higher heights and lower lows than i ever thought could be possible from playing a silly little square game that i picked up in 2013. from landing myself on the top 250 stats viewer and beating a multitude of mainlists, to almost failing my second year of college and losing my relationship because of tartarus, grinding the list has given me every emotion available to a human being. ive met so many friends and had so many good laughs in vc with the guys from rgdctw, shorty's server, slijee, angy, nexel, prune, and so many more. the people that ive met through twitter and reddit, the people from the gddp, EDS, and gamers chat, everyone who's supported my list grinding career the past 2+ years i cant thank enough. it feels surreal writing this out honestly. ive spent more than half of my life playing geometry dash, and i never thought that i would be any good. it was just something to play while waiting to get picked up from school, or maybe a crazy grind at a sleepover to see who could beat clubstep and ToE II, there really arent words that i can use to describe how much of my life this game has seen. ive redefined what i call my "limits" in this game and in my life through the thousands and thousands of hours ive spent sitting and clicking my screen. by no means am i quitting the game any time soon, i want to create and grind out easier levels, but i am quitting list grinding indefinitely.

to say that this level didn't affect my life would be lying. however, it didnt seep into other parts like tartarus did. i prioritized work, school, my relationship, and running before sitting down to grind. that being said, almost every single second of free time was spent playing this level. i would imagine the click pattern during class, tap on the desk, watch videos and tap along, time spent not playing the level was still spent on the level. i ended up getting more sleep every night because i wanted to maximize the amount of REM sleep i was getting so my muscle memory would improve every single day. i changed what i was eating and when i was eating meals in order to give myself the best chance of performance on firework. i purchased the sayodevice a few weeks ago and my consistency with the level shot through the roof. i can safely say its the best and most accurate input device ive ever used. i put my everything in to beat this level and im so glad i did.

now about the level itself.
0-3: go fuck yourself actually stick a fork in your head what the fuck were you thinking making this slop
3-14: the 8 wave is trash. the blind transition killed me a little bit but the 8 wave SUCKED. the one ship click after it was also mickey mouse but mostly just the wave
14-24: this part was fun. no complaints from me. got very consistent. the sayodevice made this part even better.
24-37: i still dont understand how the ship dual works. everything else is fine.
37-45: this part was actually awful and gave me so much trouble until i got the sayo. god bless rapid trigger.
45-54: not terrible but definitely not good. gave me a LOT of trouble, a LOT of wave deaths, and until i got the sayo, a ton of deaths to the last orbs. once i got it down though, i didnt have the worst luck ever
54-64: easily the second best part of the level. extremely fun, good click sync, consistent, only reason its not the best is because of the last 7 clicks.
64-71: best part of the level hands down. best sync, decently consistent, 64-100 is probably my favorite run on the level.
71-80 filler snoozer slop i fucking hate the red orb i fucking hate the red orb i f
orb ship: the most nerves ive felt in my entire life. it solos almost every other experience ive had in this game and outside of it. reaching the orb ship from 0 was a new height for me. i actually didn't know i could be that nervous until reaching it and passing it.
84-94: this part is essentially 100% consistent bc its pure muscle memory. 90 and the 2 orbs at 87 are the only parts u have to pay attention to, but other than that its just an ass clencher.
94-100. i genuinely am still in shock that i never died here from 0. this part is so easy yet so chokeable if u get even a single beat off rhythm with the final few orbs. i started to celebrate the second i hit the straight fly at the end because i got the good entrance and knew that i had beaten it before i even saw the flash. may have been risky but i was jumpy because of nerves and was so ready to be done.

attempts: 109k
enjoyment: 90/100
gameplay: 95/100
deco: 80/100
overall: 90/100
difficulty OP: idk man hard