Dear KH Community,

For those of you unaware we have been running a moderation election over the last few days and have selected our new mods which are as follows:

KH1 Mod Votes:

Desa3579 RebelWatt SwiftSRL

KH2 Mod votes:

InsertLogicT BigSid119 CrystalCrown13

These are people that you not us have chosen to be mods and this is our first time trying something like this. As promised I'm posting this thread as a place to vent about the election process and how we can improve it for next time.

The nomination phase:

Originally I wanted people to write me a big manifesto of what they wanted to accomplish along with them posting how much community experience they had. In hindsight I probably should have stuck with my guts here rather than try to streamline the process. My decision was made partly due to the lack of moderators due to the mass exodus and wanting to speed the process up but honestly that isn't a good reason and in future i'll be demanding manifestos unless there is an outcry not to do this.

When I came up with this process I was actually going to be a lot more strict with it asking for top 10% of runners. This caused a bit of a stir causing me to lower it to 25% of runners which was still contested by the existing mods leading it to be 33%. The argument with the moderators was that a person who is a good runner isn't necessarily a good moderator. Do you guys believe that the 33% threshold was too low or was it not enough?

In regards to the controversial decision with the kh1mod and kh2 mod post requirement I believed that anyone applying for a moderator should take it seriously. For those of you who have been around when I ask for KH moderators in the past will know that I have done this several times before. It is a small simple thing but I believe that if a person can't follow the rules in applying for a moderator position they likely won't be follow the rules exactly when it comes to verifying runs. I get this time it caught out some popular candidates but I'm hoping these people learn from this and aim to do better next time.

Election Phase:

Honestly I felt this went rather smoothly. However in the future I will be doing this phase via a google document, we felt that making the votes public would prevent people from saying I faked the results or that I was rigging it behind the scenes as such we had the votes open to the public. However this also meant that people were self conscious in who they were voting for and being able to see who was winning skewing results. I am hoping that people trust me to do this in the future but again let me know if this is a poor decision.

Thanks again for entertaining me with this idea and thank you again for being involved.

• Drazerk

Now the selection process is over we will be opening up the actual voting. I will be posting several times with people's names. If you wish to vote for that person simply like the post with the person's name written inside. You are allowed to vote for a maximum of three people if you vote for more than three your votes will be considered as a spoiled and simply not counted.

If you have not ran at least one category of KH2 your vote will not be counted. The top three candidates will be selected to be a moderator and in the case of a tie we will hold a run off election.

Good luck to all candidates and a reminder that you cannot vote for yourself.

Voting will end at 21:00 GMT on 14/4/19

• Drazerk

Now the selection process is over we will be opening up the actual voting. I will be posting several times with people's names. If you wish to vote for that person simply like the post with the person's name written inside. You are allowed to vote for a maximum of three people if you vote for more than three your votes will be considered as a spoiled and simply not counted.

If you have not ran at least one category of KH1 your vote will not be counted. The top three candidates will be selected to be a moderator and in the case of a tie we will hold a run off election.

Good luck to all candidates and a reminder that you cannot vote for yourself.

Voting will end at 21:00 GMT on 14/4/19

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

This thread will be a place to voice your concerns about the moderators for this game. If you have any concerns about verification time, categories or other general game concerns please post them here so we can see them.

This thread will be checked daily by the moderators and is one of the best ways to get in contact with us outside of the KH discord.

Once again we can't know we're doing a bad job and fix things unless you insult us so please from the bottom of our hearts insult us with everything you've got.

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

This thread will be a place to voice your concerns about the moderators for this game. If you have any concerns about verification time, categories or other general game concerns please post them here so we can see them.

This thread will be checked daily by the moderators and is one of the best ways to get in contact with us outside of the KH discord.

Once again we can't know we're doing a bad job and fix things unless you insult us so please from the bottom of our hearts insult us with everything you've got.

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

This thread will be a place to voice your concerns about the moderators for this game. If you have any concerns about verification time, categories or other general game concerns please post them here so we can see them.

This thread will be checked daily by the moderators and is one of the best ways to get in contact with us outside of the KH discord.

Once again we can't know we're doing a bad job and fix things unless you insult us so please from the bottom of our hearts insult us with everything you've got.

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

This thread will be a place to voice your concerns about the moderators for this game. If you have any concerns about verification time, categories or other general game concerns please post them here so we can see them.

This thread will be checked daily by the moderators and is one of the best ways to get in contact with us outside of the KH discord.

Once again we can't know we're doing a bad job and fix things unless you insult us so please from the bottom of our hearts insult us with everything you've got.

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

This thread will be a place to voice your concerns about the moderators for this game. If you have any concerns about verification time, categories or other general game concerns please post them here so we can see them.

This thread will be checked daily by the moderators and is one of the best ways to get in contact with us outside of the KH discord.

Once again we can't know we're doing a bad job and fix things unless you insult us so please from the bottom of our hearts insult us with everything you've got.

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

This thread will be a place to voice your concerns about the moderators for this game. If you have any concerns about verification time, categories or other general game concerns please post them here so we can see them.

This thread will be checked daily by the moderators and is one of the best ways to get in contact with us outside of the KH discord.

Once again we can't know we're doing a bad job and fix things unless you insult us so please from the bottom of our hearts insult us with everything you've got.

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

This thread will be a place to voice your concerns about the moderators for this game. If you have any concerns about verification time, categories or other general game concerns please post them here so we can see them.

This thread will be checked daily by the moderators and is one of the best ways to get in contact with us outside of the KH discord.

Once again we can't know we're doing a bad job and fix things unless you insult us so please from the bottom of our hearts insult us with everything you've got.

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

This thread will be a place to voice your concerns about the moderators for this game. If you have any concerns about verification time, categories or other general game concerns please post them here so we can see them.

This thread will be checked daily by the moderators and is one of the best ways to get in contact with us outside of the KH discord.

Once again we can't know we're doing a bad job and fix things unless you insult us so please from the bottom of our hearts insult us with everything you've got.

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

This thread will be a place to voice your concerns about the moderators for this game. If you have any concerns about verification time, categories or other general game concerns please post them here so we can see them.

This thread will be checked daily by the moderators and is one of the best ways to get in contact with us outside of the KH discord.

Once again we can't know we're doing a bad job and fix things unless you insult us so please from the bottom of our hearts insult us with everything you've got.

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

This thread will be a place to voice your concerns about the moderators for this game. If you have any concerns about verification time, categories or other general game concerns please post them here so we can see them.

This thread will be checked daily by the moderators and is one of the best ways to get in contact with us outside of the KH discord.

Once again we can't know we're doing a bad job and fix things unless you insult us so please from the bottom of our hearts insult us with everything you've got.

• Drazerk

As previously discussed in this thread: https://www.speedrun.com/kh/thread/cs20y/1#4asu4 we are changing how we will be selecting moderators. However after recent discussions we have lost a lot of kh2 and kh1 moderators and are now opening the doors for KH1 and Kh2 moderators.

The base requirements of a moderator will be as follows:

1. People coming forward are required to have run at least two non-arbitrary categories in the game and rank in the top 33% of the most popular category.
2. People coming forward need the backing of at least 2 other runners in the game (Can have ran any category and rank anywhere)

Moderators will be required to:

• Actively log into Speedrun.com at the bare minimum of once a week unless a reason is given for your in-activeness.
• Actively engage in any problems the game may have as well as feedback any community concerns or worries.
• Review runs in a timely manner.

Anyone who wishes to become a moderator for KH1 or KH2 please post in this thread with #KH1Mod or #KH2Mod. If you wish to support someone's application to be a KH1 or KH2 mod please like their post

Dear Kingdom Hearts Community

I've personally been discussing various options with various members of the community in how we should handle the running of the leaderboards in general with the feedback from Desa's pastebin.

As such we are going to be making some significant changes to how the leaderboards operate:

Firstly we will be changing the initial mod selection process, normally it is done by the series mods with input from the game mods selecting people with the most experience in the game as well as general community activity. This has worked reasonably well but obviously it has caused some communication issues like for instance crispy being a KH3 moderator since I simply asked mods to pm me if they weren't interested rather than if they were. So in light of this from this point on new moderators will be selected under the following format for the console KH games.

1. A general need for moderators in a game is called for and the game's Supermod asks people interested in becoming mod to come forward
2. People coming forward are required to have run at least two non-arbitrary categories in the game and rank in the top 33% of the most popular category.
3. People coming forward need the backing of at least 2 other runners in the game (Can have ran any category and rank anywhere)
4. At this point a list is compiled. The supermod and other game mods are allowed to veto people with good reason which is fed back to the community.
5. A list of all potential mods will be posted on the game's forum. At this point people may vote for 3 candidates (Not themselves) provided they have ran at least 1 category.
6. Most popular candidate becomes mod or if we need 2-3 mods then the top 2-3.
7. In the case of a tie a separate run off election will be held.

We feel this solution will allow the moderator team to reflect the will of the community better, obviously this solution just can't work for the spin off games due to their community size and will retain the usual system.

The next big change to the leaderboards is the role of supermods.

This has been discussed in the past but generally supermods just do all the admin stuff and its largely just fallen upon Saiyanz since he has a natural gift for making the leaderboards looking good. However it is right that maybe having the series mods being the only one able to do these admin roles is a bad idea and as such we will be appointing one super mod per game who will be seen as the person in charge of that particular game. This person will be in charge of making sure that the moderators are reviewing submissions to the leaderboards as well as having the final say in any split decisions in terms of rule making.

To prevent the supermods from going inactive we will be appointing one series mod per game to also be a supermod just as general oversight or to fill in if the chosen supermod is inactive due to real life reasons.

Right now our current supermod list will be as follows:

Kh1: Saiyanz CoM: Abandon KH2: Wyatt BBS: Rebel Days: Drazerk Recoded: Jel Ddd: Rebel 0 2: Gamebrain Kh3: 2 month wait and then decide at a later date (Game is still new as are the moderators)

These changes will be made shortly but for now I am hoping these restructuring changes will benefit the Kingdom Hearts community well.

Thanks again for your time and patience,

• Drazerk

Dear KH Community,

Recently I've been talking to a lot of people who seem to agree with Desa's points but were ultimately too afraid to speak up against the mods and bring these issues up themselves as such I'm going to ask the question: Why are you afraid of us?

One of the continuous points I bring up with the community is "Please call us shit" I would much rather you guys be honest with us and tell us when we are doing something wrong than just accepting anything we do and saying good job while secretly insulting us in a random discord or on twitter which we will never see. The mod team are people with feelings but if how I speed run games has taught us anything it is that I personally love inflicting pain upon myself. Receiving honest criticism on how we run the things even if its harsh is the only way we will be able to prevent this exact same scenario from occurring again in 2020.

As such I will be creating a space on each of the KH forums called "Mod feedback corner" where I openly encourage you to communicate any concerns. I will be forcing the moderators to read and check these corners once a week as well as reminding the general public they exist and should be used.

I'm hoping again we can solve this issue and actually have feedback on a rolling basis rather than simply once a year like we currently do.

Thanks for your time

• Drazerk

Dear Kh3 runners,

I am pleased to announce that after discussing with the other moderators that the following leaderboard mods have been selected to stay on in their role as a KH3 moderator:

CrispyMe Ninten866 wyattw8

These moderators have been playing the games heavily, contributing towards the general route as well as being heavily involved in deciding on the rules for the game already as such it just makes sense to keep them on as kh3 moderators.

With these three we would like to introduce two new people to the KH leaderboard team:

Oh Snap who has been a prominent runner of Kh3 since early JP release while also having a strong community presence when it comes to testing / routing and CrystalCrown13 who has been making tutorials for the game as well as answering any questions people have in the Kh3 discord.

We believe both of these people will be strong assets to the leaderboard team and bring fresh ideas and even compete with the existing rulings if need be.

We understand that there is no solution that pleases everyone, however I must reiterate one of our key ideologies is that we are always open to criticism and change and just because we decide on something does not mean its final.

With this I will be taking a small step back with this game and have the new Kh3 moderators run the show so please bring up issues with Kh3 with the kh3 moderators.

Thanks for your time,

• Draz

Dear Kingdom Hearts Community,

Tomorrow the embargo will officially end, and we will be allowing people to submit runs to the leaderboards, during this two-week embargo we have been looking at various options and believe we have come up with rules that will please everyone.

Firstly, we will be implementing a complete ban on all Pre-Order keyblades. It should be worth noting we will be looking into future keyblade releases on a case by case basis, but we believe that it would be unfair for future runners to be locked out of a DLC category because they pre-ordered the wrong version.

As for what constitutes using a pre-order keyblade; due to the difficulty of removing the DLC from a PS4 and the game automatically equipping it we have agreed by a vote of 5 to 2 that using the keyblade in combat will invalidate your runs. We are also asking runners to remove these keyblades in the first OC menu.

Secondly as of this current moment we have agreed upon the following non-miscellaneous categories to be added to the leaderboards: any%, any% level 1, and all lucky emblems. Beginner, Standard, and Proud will be a sub category for each of these categories allowing for more variety and run options. We will also be adding the two following miscellaneous categories, all worlds and Winny the pooh RTA% which will simply be any% with 100-acre woods and do 100-acre woods as fast as possible respectively.

Any% will be our typical beat the game as fast as possible anything goes (With the exception of pre-order keyblades).

Level 1 will require you to equip level 1 in the first menu and keep it on for the entire run, other than that we will be allowing keyblade upgrades and magic/defence boosts etc etc and it will follow the same general rules as any%.

All lucky emblems will require you to collect all lucky emblems and then defeat final Xehanort.

Finally, the most important thing we have to share is how we will be timing the game, our primary aim with this decision is to encourage as many people into the KH speedrunning community as possible without forcing them to spend an extreme amount of money on the best hardware or console.

As such we are announcing that for KH3 any% we will primarily be using the in-game time located within the battle report at the end of the game with some minor rules attached.

Due to this decision we will be requiring all runners to keep an RTA timer going to be used a fall back. Following this due to IGT not being counted if “continue” is pressed in the death screen we will be defaulting to your RTA time in any run that uses continue rather than retry. On top of this we have decided that we will be defaulting to your RTA time if we feel you are pausing on the death screen for over 30 seconds.

For the RTA timer we will have the timing start on confirming the brightness settings and the timing end when the beam of light hits Xehanort and the end of battle sound is played.

Finally I am now announcing that we are opening up positions for KH3 leader board mods. Please message me on discord if you are interested with decisions being decided sometime in March.

We hope that you are all happy with these decisions and that we can all start running this game problems free. If anyone has any questions or wish to discuss things further, please use the other leader board thread.

Thank you for reading this and for all your help in making these rules.

• Drazerk

Hey everyone the game has been out for a few days now so we have some things we would like to discuss with you and hear your opinions on.

1. What should be the official timing method?

The starting point seems fairly standard but where timing ends is in the air with people wanting to stop time before the heartbeat portion. Right now we are proposing timing ends when the beam hits Xehanort.

2. Level 1 for beginner and standard?

For those who have played around with level 1 beginner it plays a lot like proud in the early game and then transitions into its own personal hell. Meanwhile level 1 proud looks massively unfun and not entertaining at all. I propose adding beginner and standard as their own categories rather than just having proud level 1.

3. DLC Keyblades?

I think we can all agree that the Xbox keyblade is a significant power increase in the early worlds just due to how useful early thunder is while the PS4 keyblade gives you some nice movement options. We're mostly in agreement that we should split the game into any% and any% no DLC but if people want to argue the opposite please say so.

4. All worlds?

Right now the only optional world is 100 acres which is composed entirely of minigames and is fairly short compared to the other worlds. Do you think this is worth making a category for given there's no real skipable worlds?

5. Harddrives?

I've not done enough testing on loading times but I would like someone to figure out what the battle report actually times since its not RTA accurate. If it removes loads / cutscenes it may be worth switching to using that for fairness. We also need to do a lot of testing in regards to how big of a difference to loads the ps4 pro etc have.

Again this thread is mainly to gather feedback from the community, there's no obvious answer one way or the other to these topics and I'm sure there are far more questions we could ask that we haven't thought of yet.

Thanks again for taking the time to read this and with your help with organising the leaderboards

• Drazerk

This thread will eventually host all the general routing to do with world order, menus, shopping trips, and general item usage.

Please feel free to send me item location lists so I can pop them in the OP while we look for optimal routes.

Chest locations and items: https://samurai-gamers.com/kingdom-hearts-3/treasure-chest-locations/

Growth abilities: https://pastebin.com/0LTS6fuz