This category is problematic because the only way to compete in it is by obtaining a PS2 with 1.11 driver and region modding it to play japanse games.
I'm not sure what causes the huge gap between carcinogen and poppo but either way, a console with 1.11 driver has never been proven to have been released in japan, therefore it should not be playing japanese games, something about it is clearly not right.

*What i propose is remove Ps driver 1.11 category because let's face it, it will forever be dead and also the only way to compete in it is striking lucky with a driver THEN region modding.

*And allowing 1.11 in the same category as all of the other runs providing 1.11 is only used for the US version. If 1.11 + US is faster then so be it. People need to realise that japanese versions aren't always the go to version for speed.
Top 3 should still provide proof of driver either way just so we can be clear that nobody is using 1.11 + JPN

I'm not against region modding, i just think this category has and always will be ridiculous.
Region modding with other PS Drivers gives no competitive advantage to anyone that chooses to do it, doing so with 1.11 saves minutes.

" i just think this category has and always will be ridiculous "
No more stuff to add, Steven said everything 😉

I dont like the seperation either and I dont like region modding.
I'm for original hardware & software which in this case would mean that 1.11 (which only was released in America as far as I can tell) should only run the American version of the game. Same goes for any other models.

The rule we have now with showing PS Driver Version will in that case stay but we would only focus on the model number and if it corresponds with the region of the game.

I don't see the need to ban region modding all together. Region modding a 2.0 driver console gives no competitive advantage. It's also impossible to enforce on other platforms.

I always thought it would be a great idea to allow the 1.11 on the regular leaderboard provided it only played the US version. When I brought up the issues I had with the creation of the seperate lb a few people even said the fastest time achievable with all non-modded gear would be on a 1.11 w/ US version game, so I myself only ran US on my scph 70012 in hopes of getting a time better than Poppo's but on US RE2. I think this is a great suggestion Steven. ?

I'm yet to see any proof of US version on 1.11 being the fastest on a non region modded console. It'd be nice for someone to test it and show proof of it.

My PAL PS2 (which is a phat model) actually has this Driver:

But I'm pretty sure the slims have the advantage of a faster CD lens, correct?

It's hard to find information about specific PS2 models, but it looks like a lot of PS2s around 2003-2004 had Driver 1.11 (phats and slims) and there's like no info regarding the differences between 70001, 70011 and 70012, they all seem to be the same model, and there's no rerelease of the Japanese 70000?

UPDATE:

Done some digging, turns out there is in fact a NTSC-J + Driver 1.11 console: SCPH-70006. It's actually an Asian model (Asian PS1/2s are NTSC-J and are region locked to Japanese software). According to the following, SCPH-70005 & SCPH-70007 should also be the same:

http:/​/​www.​ps2-home.​com/​forum/​app.​php/​page/​fmcb-compatible-ps2-models-chart

I'm not able to confirm for those two models, the way I figured out SCPH-70006 was to check the BIOS in PCSX2 and check in the Version Information screen:

Still though, I don't think PS Driver version is what's making it a fast model, more the fact that slims have a faster lens, but also the 70000-70012 models have the actual PS1 hardware (IOP), 75000+ removed it and emulate.

TLDR: 70005-70012 (Driver 1.11 equipped) are the best PS2s for speedrunning (if Driver 1.11 is actually "the best", because later PS2s had Driver 2.00, though this could just be changes needed to work on the newer, non IOP PS2s).

I was only just made aware of this thread recently and I would like to contribute:

I ran the game again on an SCPH-90001 with a modchip enabled and got a similar time as the modded SCPH-70012 1.11 playstation. All of the runs on the modchip leaderboard which were previously believed to be separate because of driver 1.11 were all region modded consoles (including the original Trevor Seguin run which sparked the separation to begin with)

so 1.11 loading faster is incorrect, it was the modchip, and the leaderboard was changed to "modchip" to reflect that. This decision was made on a Discord server, and I don't believe this change was publicly posted about anywhere.

it doesn't mean that 1.11 has a different loading effect on RE2 but 1.11 wasn't what made my PS2 load the game faster, the modchip skipped checks it does while reading the disk somewhere.

I only just now saw this, so sorry for semi-necro'ing, but I just wanted to say I find it hella interesting about the modchip skipping checks Carci, how is it you came to find that out?

Also, having used a 1.11 driver (albeit playing on US) I was still pretty surprised at my inability to even approach a 1:09-1:10 range time, given that we thought the driver was what was supposed to be making the difference lol. I routed in a pretty effective FAS to account for the RPD 2F rng and still, it didn't seem to make a fuck.

So it's interesting to find out literally years later that it had something to do with the modchip and not the driver.