Hello Everyone!

Over the past week, speedrun community members of Sonic 2 have discussed and voted on a potential switch to the primary timing method for Sonic 2, which has been IGT (In-Game Time) for as long as the game has been ran. IGT promotes a playstyle that abuses pausing, which gets amplified in higher levels of play. RTA-TBC (Real Time Attack Minus Time Bonuses+Continues) is a way to fix that issue. Some users wagered that a change must be made, and others consider IGT should stay in place. We decided to set up a poll for 72 hours, where RTA-TBC gets put in-place IF there's a 70/30 percentage split in favor of RTA-TBC.

Here were the results...

Out of 30 individual Sonic 2 speedrunners that pitched in their thoughts and their vote on the matter, we ended off with a 87/13 percentage split in favor of RTA-TBC! Because of this outcome, it is clear that the majority of the active speedrunners of Sonic 2 are in favor of a switch, so as of April 17th, 2024, RTA-TBC will be the primary timing method for Sonic 2 (1992) speedruns! IGT will still be around, but as a secondary timing method.

The reason we remove Time Bonuses and Continues in runs is because these punish runners that go fast by having them waste time seeing longer time bonuses tick down, and seeing the continue jingle. Raw RTA would incentivize going slow to go fast, so this is why we added -TBC into the timing method.

Additional hot-fixes on some rules/restrictions have been put in-place due to irrelevancy:

PAL(50HZ) HAS BEEN UNBANNED FOR FULLGAME RUNS

Previously, PAL was an issue when IGT was the primary timing method due to the slower framerate. It gave speedrunners a huge advantage for playing in slower speeds which IGT didn't punish. PAL got banned sometime last year due to this, but since RTA-TBC is primary now, this change has been reversed.

PAUSE RESTRICTIONS HAS BEEN REMOVED FOR FULLGAME RUNS

Speedrunners weren't allowed to have a singular pause for longer than 20 seconds prior to today. This was to prevent players from "taking a break" midrun while not being penalized for doing so. Length of pauses are now a non-issue as they are automatically accounted for in RTA-TBC.

If you are curious in how you can get started in timing your runs in RTA-TBC, I have posted a link to an RTA-TBC LiveSplit Component that can help subtract your Time Bonuses and Continues in your runs.

I look forward to the future of RTA-TBC Sonic 2 speedruns and the new barriers we push!

Hello everyone,

Over the past few days, members of the Sonic 2 community has been in discussion over the current timing method that full-game runs use, which is IGT (In-Game-Time). IGT has been the primary timing method for practically the entire lifespan of the speedrun. As time went on, the speedrun has changed quite a lot, and the opinions of others have as well. Pausing has started to become practically mandatory for high level consistency, with members arguing that a penalty is warranted for the length of pause buffers, which IGT doesn't grant. Because of this, talks have been brewing to change this timing method to RTA-TBC (Real-Time-Attack-Minus-Time-Bonus+Continues).

IGT is self-explanatory. Simply use the timer that the game provides as measurement to time the run. RTA-TBC is standard RTA but with extra steps. The Minus Time Bonuses + Continues part subtracts the extra time the game gives you when you acquire time bonus and a continue at the end of every act. This is to prevent time loss from runners going fast, which doesn't make sense for a speedrun.

This topic has been around for years, with voting being done in the past, but the metagame in top level play has been shifting in favor of excessive pausing more and more so we are now revisiting it.

Voting is being done over at the official Classic Sonic Speedrunning Community Discord which can be found here: https://discord.com/invite/pvdewn9yQa The discussion can be found on the s2-1992-igt-vs-rta channel under the Sonic 2 section of the Discord. i recommend looking through the pinned comments to hear other Sonic 2 runner opinions.

Voter eligibility on the timing method poll must meet the following criteria:

• You must have a submitted fullgame Sonic 2 (1992) speedrun on SRC prior to the creation of the channel [April 11th, 2024]
• Must contribute to this discussion with an opinion on the matter (If a post of yours has been pinned on the channel, I consider you eligible to vote)

The voter eligible runners will be given a new discord role to gain access to another channel that will have access to the poll to vote on. Because altering a long lasting timing method is a huge turning point for the speedrun, I require a 70/30 percentage split or better in favor of RTA-TBC for a timing method change to be put into effect.

Voting will be open for 72 hours, with it closing on April 17th, 2024 at 1:30 AM EST

Here's hoping that the majority of the community will be satisfied by not needing to revisit this topic for the foreseeable future.

Thank you.