There are multiple reasons why emulators, ESPECIALLY Citra, aren't allowed. This has already been answered multiple times (https://www.speedrun.com/nsmb2/thread/wma6n, https://www.speedrun.com/nsmb2/thread/wqjbx ), but I'll explain anyway.
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The Loading times. They are very inconsistent, and while I do think that having a separate category/leaderboard for emulator is nice, even THAT comes with it's own problems.
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The PC required to even RUN Citra properly. I'm using an M1 Mac for crying out loud, and Citra STILL doesn't run properly at the lowest resolution. Even if you do somehow manage to get a PC powerful enough to run Citra, the leaderboard would be very unfair because people could get better times, but still get worse on the leaderboard due to lag.
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Frame Advancing, Save Stating, Changing Emulation/ CPU Clock speed, etc. All of these can be used to cheat in a run very easily. You're probably wondering, "Super Mario Bros. has strict rules on emulators, why not this game?" Well The Super Mario Bros. leaderboard has 20 Mods. TWENTY. This leaderboard has three. Even assuming that they accept emulators to a strict extent, why would they go out of their way to check the emulator games when the ALREADY crack down on the "Official Release" Runs?
