Hi! I am one of the moderators for Candy Crush Saga. Recently, myself and the current super mod have had slight suspicion over the world record in the main category. The gameplay in the video appears to be slightly faster just by eye, but not to a completely noticeable level. The game has its many differences across many different platforms so it could possibly be just a certain version of the game having faster animations etc., however, I am not so sold. Something I have recently tested is the animation of the candies after parts of the level’s requirements are fulfilled (sorry this is really confusing). I tested the time of this animation and the WR is faster by about 80ms which is approximately x1.1 of the other top 3 runs being tested for the same time
Another player playing on Android seemed to also have this possibly sped up version of the game (in terms of animations) which leads to believe it is a version locked thing of sorts. I, however, still just want to ask any moderators or generally experienced speedrunners it they have any suggestions as to how to check if runs have been manually sped up post-recording or if anyone has any definitive methods to determine if a run is sped up. As of now I am quite confident it is a version based advantage but better safe than sorry :).
What is the most common way of timing runs down to ms? I assume its by using some editing software and collecting the time from the starting frame to the final frame but I am not entirely sure.