After quite a bit of discussion, the mods have decided to implement some requested changes to the leaderboards.

Runs under certain times will no longer need to be streamed. We understand the myriad of reasons of why a run might not be streamed, such as age, anxiety, internet issues or time restrictions, so the rule has been removed to accommodate those who cannot stream. However, we still do highly recommend streaming runs if possible.

When verifying high level runs, we reference previous attempts, practice sessions and the like to gain confidence that a high level run is legitimate. The more we have access to, the better your chances are of getting a run accepted. Therefore is it recommended to keep local recordings of attempt sessions which can be uploaded upon request.

We have decided to remove the IL boards starting in 7 days. This should give everyone time to look at or backup something there that they may want. This decision has been made because these boards create a high quantity of runs for mods to verify, delaying verification of other categories, use inaccurate timing and in most cases don’t provide any extra information. Removal of individual levels isn't a new concept, as the mods of SMB3 and SMW have also removed their IL boards.

A document will be made to preserve some of the more interesting individual level strategies using the in game timer, which will be accessible in the ‘Guides’ section on speedrun.com. We have also added a frame counted 8-4 IL category to the category extensions leaderboards that can be found here.

So far runs that use a save-state to return to the title screen have been tolerated, but future submissions that use it will be rejected. This goes for all save-states including the virtual console "restore point". Runs currently on the leaderboard or in the submission queue will remain.

The following categories will be removed from the boards:

• user-defined categories
• Beat All Levels as Mario and Luigi
• All Underground Zones
• All Water Areas
• All Warps Deathless

“user-defined categories” lead to some very silly or arbitrary categories being added and resulted in a lot of verification work. “Beat All Levels as Mario and Luigi” is simply the game beaten twice with different sprites and already better covered by “Both Quests Warpless” or “★8-4 Warpless”. The other 3 have very few runners. As with the IL leaderboards the boards will remain for 7 days to allow people to look at or backup the information. Remember, you can still run the categories and post your runs to the internet, they just won’t be tracked on speedrun.com. You can use the Category Requests Thread to request categories from now on.

Thank you for reading the changes to the rules. We have thought long and hard about these, and want to make the leaderboards as good as they can possibly be. If you have any questions, please ask them below, and a mod will get back to you soon.

BAD for my opinion. Individual levels was really important for beginners. Do you remember how hard was beat full game in 1 run 1st time? I get it only after 3 months of playing Mario. If hard for checking runs add more moderators. If you think that some levels are not intresting you can remove only very easy levels, maybe 1-3, 2-3, 3-2, 6-1 and -1. User-defined categories was really great idea. Some of new categories are as intresting as old. I know that some new categories are stupid, but you can delete only very similar or very stupid categories. Also coop warpless haven't runs, but you leave it. Why?

The ILs and the user-defined categories have become a management nightmare. It wasn't an issue when the community was smaller. However, the community has grown much larger (much more than I imagined it ever would) and it's still growing at a rapid pace. Keeping all of those around isn't feasible long term in my opinion. There are currently around 40 mod defined categories and 50 user defined categories. That's 90 categories. It's very difficult to manage and it's hard to know what all is out there so we don't end up with duplicate or overlapping categories.

If you have good ideas for categories, AD2 created a category request thread in the Category Extensions forum. If we approve, it will be added to the leaderboard.

Could more mods be added? Sure, but that doesn't really fix the problem.

I'm sure someone will submit a co-op warpless run at some point. I've had thoughts of trying that sometime when I meet up with another speedrunner again.

Then why not reduce the amount of IL to just worlds? I know that it defeats the purpose of individual levels, but reducing the amount of IL's from 32 possible categories to just 8 would help manage them quite effectively and I do like to stress that it might offer new strategies from how one approaches a level in a IL run if they have to consider the fact that they have to run the entire world at the heart of the run.

This combined with eliminating even more category extensions would make your jobs easier.

Yes, I know that commuinty is really big now, but why you so categorically delete all IL's and user-defined categories. You can delete most of stupid categories and easy levels before deleting all. And work can become possible.

@PiotrGrochowski That's what any% is, lol

'The ILs and the user-defined categories have become a management nightmare.' Had to be expected to be honest.

That is Any%.

What he means is the only IL's that should be there are 1-1 1-2 4-1 4-2 8-1 8-2 8-3 8-4 (I think)

But why just the any% levels?

I don't know, I was just clarifying

I think it is because they are the most commonly run to complete the game. A fair concession to be had, I am sure, but I feel like my overall point can be preserved here. Reduce the amount of IL from 32 to 8. Either lump each of the four levels that make up each of the 8 worlds into one level or just simply count the Any% levels, it really doesn't matter at this point.

While I have you, I will make a brief point about why SMB3 and SMW had to ditch IL. Now do keep in mind that this is purely my opinion, and it is purely conjecture at this point. SMB3 and SMW had maps for level select. Now in theory, a path through any given world in those games can cut out huge blocks of levels in any given run for example, beating World 3-6 in SMB3, under ideal circumstances can allow you to cut through 3-7, 3-Fort2 and 3-8 if you are speedrunning rather than intending to play every level. SMW is even worse depending on how many exits you are going for in any given run.

In other words, while the common speedrunning levels are covered frequently enough, the point is that there is a possibility that there are a lot more levels in SMB3 and SMW that any speedrunner with decent skill can go and submit new runs.

Here, everyone knows the Any% run very well. It is just 8 levels to success. On the other hand, there are 8 worlds that we could count as 8 levels. From the 32 IL that we currently have, we have the possibility that we could reduce the IL runs to 8 IL. That can help the workload on the moderators and help streamline the IL category rather than have its wanton destruction.

Nothing stops someone from creating an IL leaderboard elsewhere. If someone wants to do that, then by all means, go for it.

Regarding the save state on the title screen, is the Super Mario/Duck Hunt selection screen okay or it is prohibited also? Thanks

Use the "reset" function of the emulator rather than loading a savestate. You should be able to bind that to a key to be able to do so on your keyboard.

I'm using an Everdrive-N8 because when I stream I don't want to get up every time to reset, but that's okay, I will adjust my setup and put the NES closer to me ! Thank you for your answer, I appreciate!

Well, what I was saying there is that I feel that it would be unfair to do just the any% levels as if that's the only category that matters.

Aside from my suggestion from a previous post of someone doing a leaderboard elsewhere, I suppose you guys could use something like PBtracker. You should be able to define "categories" and submit your own times. I haven't used it in some time but, I'm pretty sure you can do that.

Maybe we can have an IL Leaderboard, but no one submits runs unless it is better than the best time already on. Basically a new IL WR Leaderboard.

For Rox. I had more discussion about IL's that I love and will run them even without leaderboard. My best idea was to make leaderboard for IL's and categories, which are pretty hard for WR. People willn't submit too more IL's, because they can stuck at one and this cane make moderators work succesful. Also adding more moderators can make the compromisse. For example IL's for leaderboard: NTSC/PAL: 1-2, 2-1, 2-2, 3-1, 4-2, 5-1, 5-4, 6-2, 7-1, 7-2, 8-1, 8-2, 8-4. NTSC All stars/ PAL All stars: 1-2, 2-1, 2-2, 3-1, 4-1, 4-2, 5-1, 5-4, 6-2, 7-1, 7-2, 8-1, 8-2, 8-3, 8-4. Also we can make discussion about add/ delete some IL's.

wait your saying that we cant use the underground pipe in 1-1 anymore?