In my opinion, Any% No W5 is a really fun category to run due to its specific length, and the idea behind it. It's certainly a change from the regular Any%. However, it is currently stuck behind the Misc. window which makes it less appealing to try. It shouldn't be an issue of clutter because there are only three non-misc categories right now. Is there any chance that Any% No W5 could become an official category?

Just sayin, nsmb2 has no misc categories anymore and Imo its better

True OpieOP

Also, Any% No W5 has more total runs in it than 100%.

Well-written response, thank you. That definitely makes sense. However, I would like to see it become non-misc if its popularity ever picks up.

It isn't arbitrary at all, it's clearly an intended pathway through the game.

Usually when speedrunners refer to arbitrary, they usually mean that, even though it might be an intended path by the game creator, it's nothing more than that, and the general community won't go out of their way to run it. Also, it's not a category well known (if known at all) outside of the community.

The 3 main categories that anyone outside of any mario community would guess existed in a mario game are: any% w/ warps, any% without warps, and 100%.

Also IL's and IW's if you even consider them categories.

Otherwise, for anybody to know an "arbitrary" category exists, they would have to go out of their way to discover it.

Good examples are removing certain worlds from a speedrun. Or adding specific levels.