Hi.

I'm aware suggesting new categories tends to fail, as they often suffer from being too niche or arbitrary, so I try to avoid doing so.

However, one that's been sitting on my mind for quite a while now has been the "All SS Effect Modes" (feel free to shuffle words around or think of a better name) idea, which should be fairly self-explanatory—the idea is to play and earn an SS on every Effect Mode in the game.

I've tried it out a few times already, so far my result with very suboptimal gameplay and some game-overs is around 1:10:00 (and a less terrible execution would likely lead to a sub 50), so I think it could be a viable run for those who enjoy longer, but not too long runs.

The run has a lot of potential in terms of strategies. • Marathon is a balance between clearing lines fast but with high enough scores (as it requires both 500k points and 150 lines cleared for SS); • Ultra is similar but with lower speed and a higher focus on score; • Master can be set to any level for balancing safety and speed; • Countdown holds the question of whether to create T-Spins or wait for Tetrises with bonus scoring; • and lastly, Mystery is just a wreck, but a fun one. Some drawbacks include having to wait for the timer to finish on certain levels to receive SS (All Clear & Purify) and having to go through the boring Relax modes, though maybe those can be ultra-optimised using the Fixed piece sequence setting.

I am definitely having fun with it so far and would like to be able to potentially compete in this category here on the leaderboards. So, please, consider the idea. Thank you!

That's quite an interesting idea. Personally, I'd consider it pretty niche when you compare it to something like speedrunning through Journey Mode, though it sounds fun. If I am proven wrong on the niche-ness of this then I will try to work out how it could be turned into a category.

This would probably be difficult from a moderation perspective, though. Splicing on its own would probably be possible on every exit to menu, and checking all of them would be a nightmare, even if it only had to be done once for a slightly suspicious run. Additionally, with how much more diverse of a skillset effect modes cover, it would be harder to just look at a run and determine whether it's suspicious and should be checked more in-depth in the first place. None of it is impossible to overcome, but don't set your expectations super high.

This does definitely sound like a fun thing you compete against a group of friends with at the very least, so don't forget to keep having fun!