How do runs set up live splits? For example I want to run dkcr any% on switch, do I have an actual way to record my screen and even add splits? Or do I need to just video record my switch with a timer besides it?

It isn't necessary to have a timer in the video; we can verify/correct the timing on our end after you submit the video of the run, although a lot of runners do prefer to put it in if possible. Generally, we use a program such as OBS to capture both the gameplay and LiveSplit window at the same time, which works best if you have an HD capture card, though they aren't exactly cheap to get and set up if you don't have one. It's perfectly fine to record with a camera pointed at the TV as well (see the current 4th and 8th-place Any% runs for example); in this case, it's recommended to make sure the camera is in focus, so the brightness doesn't change during the run.

In summary, whatever works best for you is the best recording method: if showing the splits is too difficult or inconvenient on your setup, don't worry too much about including them.

On a side note, this leaderboard is for the original Wii game, and the Returns HD boards can be found here: https://www.speedrun.com/dkcrhd

Thanks a lot for the help! Other than that I have another unrelated question(idk if I should open a new thread or not so hopefully this is fine). As someone who has never speed ran the game before, but played the game a ton casually, are there any things I should know going into speedrunning any%? I looked at most of the 100% wr and tas but other than that haven't seen anything about speedrunning dkcr(assume I have seen your any% guide which I have yet to get around to but will do before starting to do runs)

(responding late ooooops awawawa)

The main thing I'd recommend people to do when learning Any% is to do all of the levels in Time Attack, ideally to gold or shiny gold but even just getting bronze helps when starting out. Watching the WR for a level gives a good idea of how it looks when done fast, but a lot of them also use strats that aren't viable for full-game runs, so it can be more helpful to look at full-game runs as well as lower-ranked Time Attacks that use more consistent strats. The latter half of the run has a significant difficulty spike compared to the first half, and there's arguably another difficulty spike in W7, so in the future those are the levels that will need the most practice; deaths will be common in the first few runs and can still happen at pretty much any level of gameplay (there's one in the Any% record even), so try not to be discouraged by them too much. In the long term, worlds 1 through 4 will become relatively consistent and most of your practice should be directed towards the second half. A nice thing about HD compared to Wii is that you can easily practise doing 7-5, 7-6 and 7-7 with the red switches even after you've found them.

There aren't too many big "tricks" in DKCR compared to other speedgames; it's more about how good your movement is. That being said, two main tricks that everyone should do are the phase skips in 4-B and the fireball skips in 6-B, both of them being relatively easy and significant timesaves. If you're playing HD Modern Mode, coins won't be too much of an issue but the routing does get a lot tighter if you play in Original Mode; there are a few last-resort ways to get coins if necessary, most importantly the background section at the end of 4-2 (W4 has the hardest coin requirement to meet).

The last important thing to mention if you're running HD is that you should play with the controls set to Default in-game (this is the default setting when you create a new file, so you won't have to manually change them for each run). The Alternate control style forces you to hold the grab button to run at full speed, which also affects hovering with Diddy; this particularly impacts 5-1, where you need to quickly hover past vines, which isn't possible with Alternate controls (you'll instead be forced to grab them and jump off immediately). If you do prefer the Alternate setup of having roll/pound be on L/R instead of X/Y (I do as well) then you can instead remap the buttons in the Switch settings ('Controllers and Sensors' near the bottom of the settings page) to achieve the same effect while using Default controls. Lastly, in vertical climbing sections, you should use the D-pad (on a Pro Controller) or the directional buttons (on a Joy-Con) to climb at a 45-degree angle with up-left or up-right (both work), which is about 1.5x faster than climbing normally. The joystick works fine for everything else except vertical climbing, so the most comfortable way to play may be to switch between the two depending on what you're doing.