Is audio required in runs? My capture card stopped recording audio for some reason and I'm scared if I submit a run it might get rejected because it would lack audio.

"Game audio is highly recommended, especially for runs retimed without loads, but is not required. Uploading runs to YouTube is highly recommended." - the rules

That's what I'm asking about. "Highly recommended" is a bit vague, does highly recommended mean there is a high chance runs without audio will get rejected, or does it mean it's only preferred but no real chance of your run being rejected?

Try your best to have audio, but in reality for runs that aren't ranked super high on the leaderboard it really doesn't matter too much.