Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions

The Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions (or A.S.S for short) are a monthly speedmapping event created by Doomworld user James Caldwell (Obsidian) and were originally held on, though more recently the sessions have moved to instead.

History
The Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions were started by Obsidian in December 2013 as a way to encourage users on The Abyss forums to partake in Doom mapping on a more regular basis, and while this objective wasn't quite reached, the first session was enough of a success to merit a continuation. The general rules are that each mapper has 2 hours to create a Boom compatible map adhering to at least one of 3 predetermined themes, with 15 minutes beforehand for resource gathering and 15 minutes after for testing.

After the 15th session in early 2015, Obsidian announced that he would be passing the responsibility of the Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions over to Doomworld user TheMionicDonut due to real-life obligations. In early 2016, the series began to falter, with sessions 27-30 taking place but not seeing an official release for various reasons. The 30th session, held in May 2016, was originally intended to be the last in the series. After several months, a 31st session was announced for late October 2016, however the session was "postponed," due to 32in24-16 taking place at the same time. While the 31st session didn't go ahead that year (with the sessions starting at 32 in 2017 due to confusion on the part of Obsidian), it would later be "reanimated" for the 2021 Halloween session.

The series was revived in December 2017 with Obsidian at the helm, with new sessions starting with the 32nd and sessions 22 and 27-30 finally seeing official releases in early 2018. Since then the sessions have changed hands back to TheMionicDonut and then back to Obsidian, with Obsidian officially running the sessions as of January 2022.

2013

 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 1

2014

 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 2
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 3
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 4
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 5
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 6
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 7
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 8
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 9
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 10
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 11
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 12
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 13

2015

 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 14
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 15
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 16
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 17
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 18
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 19
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 20
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 21
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 22
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 23
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 24

2016

 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 25
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 26
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 27
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 28
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 29
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 30

2017

 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 32

2018

 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 33
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 34
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 35
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 36
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 37
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 38
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 39
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 40
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 41
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 42

2019

 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 43
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 44
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 45

2020

 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 46
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 47
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 48
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 49

2021

 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 50
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 51
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 52
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 53
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 54
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 55
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 56
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 57
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 58
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 31

2022

 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 59
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 60
 * Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions: Session 61

Trivia

 * The acronym is apparently a complete coincidence.
 * If a mapper cannot finish their map on time, they are given an extra hour that they can use to complete it: this was dubbed "The Alfonzo Treatment", referring to one of the hosts of Doom Radio who was infamous for taking a hefty amount of time on his speedmaps. This practice was retired when Obsidian revived the sessions in 2017.
 * The 22nd session was an attempt to have co-operative mapping, with one mapper creating the basic layout of the map during the session and other mappers touching it up later. Unfortunately a lack of co-ordination resulted in only one map being fully completed within the intended timescale. A final compilation was long delayed, with the WAD not appearing on the /idgames archive until 8 February, 2018.