Hey guys, I'm new to the speedrunning scene, but I had an idea about the categories. As of right now, the categories are split between PC, Console, and Mobile. However, the only difference between these platforms is the input method. With the current categories, someone is able to run the mobile category with a controller or mouse and keyboard. This is unfair to touchscreen users (like myself) since touchscreen users often have more time loss due to the clunky controls. My proposition is that the categories be renamed by input method: Mouse and keyboard, controller, and touchscreen. This way the different categories will have the same speedrunning environment. I think a simple renaming of the categories (PC to keyboard, console to controller, and mobile to touchscreen) won't create too much confusion, and it's better to make this transition now while this speedrunning group is still small and there aren't any keyboard/controller runs on mobile as of yet. Thanks for reading!

This has been suggested and also denied multiple times. Whilst I agree with it, this would simply create too many different categories and would basically be giving out free world records. I have had trouble with this being a controller console player myself and people who use keyboard and mouse. I see where you are coming from but at the moment this isn't possible

Thanks for replying! I figured this had been brought up before, and I know it's a lot of work on the mod team's part; I just figured I'd throw up my suggestion. I guess spam clicking the craft bread button while keyboard players can just shift click has gotten to me a little lol.

How do you propose dealing with players that use hybrid controls? Or what would happen if a mobile player used a controller, but downgraded to an older version to gain an advantage? (Console cant downgrade)

With regards to the hybrid controls, maybe it could be based on which control you use for movement? I realize the rules could get sticky there, so I understand where you're coming from. Also I wasn't aware of version downgrading, so that ruins my idea right from the start haha. I'm sure you guys have the best system in place; my biggest worry is that someone could decide to run the mobile category using an ipad pro with a keyboard and mouse. That could create some hard to beat times for touchscreen users. Also do y'all have any plans/ideas about the upcoming apple silicon macs? Apple is claiming that you can run apps from the app store natively on your mac. If MCPE supports this, that means that people can start using a macbook to run the mobile category. Just wondering what your thoughts are on this. Thanks for the reply! I appreciate your activity on the forums.

Unfortunately input split would cause way more problems and broken categories than platform splits do. Because of console not being able to downgrade, anyone with a controller could downgrade to gain advantage on a particular category. On top of that, chest contents differ between platforms so it puts more of a disadvantage to certain categories that rely on loot. There might be a few more minor reasons that i can't think of atm but right now we're trying to make categories as fair as possible for everyone and platform split has caused us the least issues so that's what we're staying with. Hope this helps you understand!

Thanks! That's a really good explanation, and downgrading was a major issue that I wasn't aware of. I assumed that all the bedrock platforms were the same which apparently they're not haha.

I understand that different platforms affect different glitches, but what's the problem with glitchless categories? Maybe the different loot tables affect different set seed runs, but how about RSG? I don't really see a problem with input splitting for RSG

Because of hybrid controls