Hey all, it's my first post here! I've been watching the SM64 speedrunning community on Twitch and YouTube for a while now and I had a thought about the 16-star routing.

Right now, the top-level players are doing LBLJ into BitDW into WF and then downstairs. My idea is to skip WF and depart BitDW straight into the basement. By my amateur calculations, you would save around 25-30 seconds in castle movement not having to go to the WF room and wait for the star door animation.

Obviously time will be lost by having to get 3 slower stars in the basement, but if you replaced the 3 WF stars with lava elevator, bully the bullies, and christmas miracle I wonder if it might be worth it, especially since you eliminate cannonless and owl-less potentially allowing for more consistent runs.

Again, I'm just a curious outsider... you guys are the pros... I'm sure this idea has been floated before and shot down... I'm just curious to see if it's viable or if it just loses too much time.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to look this over!