How are people already putting new game threads up when no runs ave been submitted. For example, the SMO leader boards were put up days before the game was out and people were already mods for them. I want to be able to add a game before it comes out so i can mod it.

Series mods can add a new game to the series at any time, incl. upcoming games. You can also normally submit a upcoming game if it's releasing within the next 2 weeks and if you are a well-known user and have at least one run. The site staff can still always reject your submission.

And trust me, being a mod is more annoying than anything, especially for a newly released game as you get a lot of runs each day and often have debates of changing rules etc.

Wait what? Submit an upcoming game releasing within the next 2 weeks? How? How would you have a run for it?

"Well-known users or moderators of other games in a series may request unreleased games two weeks prior to launch."

That's from the submissions page. Seems it's still about series entries, yeah?