alright im done with my findings. you can check it out here: https://1drv.ms/w/s!ApE7xBo4AXLjgYoYVaZwy_euoy2ADQ?e=Rj8Gdm

Just my notes regarding the findings above: Emulators do not need to use a microphone, and can instead use a hotkey. Console disadvantage.

Mouse is faster due to fast clicking methods. Console disadvantage.

Tablet can be used to mitigate issues with swiping motions, and we've already had people using them. Console disadvantage due to lack of choice.

Haven't personally tested loads/RNG yet, difficult to test with console consistently. To be determined.

Cheating is possible with Emulators, but we do what we can to prevent it.

Overall the emulator has many more options and advantages. I would fully endorse splitting the leaderboard, since the lack of an even playing field could dissuade console users from attempting to beat existing times.

i use a wacom tablet so that it feels like a DS, but i guess it also makes using an emulator more fair.

like I said, the main reason I personally argue against splitting is that there are simply not enough console players to make a category. When we see more console players I think splitting would be a good idea.

I dont know much about Speedrunning. Is it possible to have a Combined Leaderboard and a separate DS leaderboard? Emulators hold almost all the records here. That in itself should warrant separating the records into 2 categories. Its no different than having an Xbox and PlayStation category. They're different platforms and control schemes

I totally agree with ThunderCat, but hypothetically if this game were more saturated, leave the full game runs as is but separate the Misc categories. Advantages and disadvantages are WAY more apparent in shorter categories but they make up for each other over time in the full game categories. I've used both, but prefer official releases for speedrunning, but emulators can have lag and some minigames are harder with mouse, whereas DS has no lag and minigames are easier due to proper input method. As well for vice versa. Though I read more comments above so maybe there's a lot more I don't know comparing the two platforms.

Late, I know.

We have had internal discussions about separating console and emulator and the majority vote was no. Not only would it cause a major split in the community, we simply don't have enough console runners to warrant a sub category.

For example, If you go to burn a pie and filter to hide emu there is only 30 runs compared to the 200 submissions with emulator + console. That's just not enough.

We want to keep everything as fair as possible for everyone without causing a split in the community, and that was the goal for the new rule changes regarding emulator we implemented today. If you have any other ideas, please let us know though. We are open for more discussion.