This was the right thing to do. I have always felt that different localizations should have different categories whenever they have differences that cause one to be faster, even if it's just length of text. This instance is a much clearer situation. Those slow pitches are hilarious :)

Very interesting. My initial reaction is that this should be allowed, as it is a natural game function available to all players, but I think a new category should be made, and the current category should allow no speed changes. As Neural89 said, people will choose their own speeds, which will cause the any% record to plummet extremely low. It definitely seems to me like the kind of dynamic that warrants a separate category. Nice find Dwedit!

Is there a listing of all deaths somewhere? If we're going to float this idea, perhaps someone could post a complete list here.

The notes for vaxherd's any% route simply state what to do if starting from empty save RAM, but don't say anything about how to do this. I tried starting a run by deleting all files and creating the starting files required but this yielded incorrect stats for my new characters. I am assuming the discard counter is what needs to be reset, I tried setting the discard counter used in the glitchless category and indeed got different character stats, but still not the right ones.

Could someone please state in explicit detail what is required to set up an NES cartridge from any state to execute this run? I imagine it will be useful for new runners to be able to find this information here as well. Many thanks in advance.

The rules don't say "no recordings" they say "no submitting a movie file." Youtube video is fine.

With the arrival of a new speedrun using warps throughout, it appears the time has finally come to create a Warpless category for all stages. I am moving all warpless runs over to the new category. Players going for a warpless run on all 16 stage layouts are also welcome to submit the time they achieve on the first 6 levels, effectively playing 2 categories at the same time. Enjoy!

I think the rules for '1 Loop' should just say "Warps are not allowed." I'll add that in tonight.

As for the 'All Levels' category, after being informed by link_7777 about the warping process, I honestly think that if warps are permitted for 'All Levels' there should also be an 'All Levels (Warpless)' category. My 'All Levels' run currently has no warps, and I think the challenge of completing all 16 unique road layouts without warping is something that should exist. Just something to think about for now.

Ultimately I think there shouldn't be any custom teams or leagues. If this were a bigger game, I'd be fine with having a separate category for times achieved with a customization, but at the moment I don't see that as necessary. It's not uncommon for sports games to allow you to build a custom team, and my opinion is the same for all of them.

I forgot to actually verify your run with default lives, it's up there now.

The quantity of starting lives was never specified before in the rules; generally the default is always the standard, so that's what will be used in the future. I'll comb through all previously accepted runs tomorrow and make sure that the leaderboard conforms to that standard.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll look into this over the next couple days.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Over the past few months, moderators of NES games have put in extra effort to make the NES boards cleaner and more efficiently moderated. This has included removal of some extra categories with characteristics that make them unnecessary, such as completion of an abbreviated section of a game, excessive amounts of point intervals, or similar ideas that make it seem likely that the creator (or the person who made the request) was only looking for "free trophies."

Clearly, "100 Lines, Level 0 Start" is not one of these categories. As has already been stated, the 2 techniques that can be applied to speedrunning Tetris are most strongly exemplified at the extreme ends of the spectrum: starting at a higher level allows you to move the pieces to the side of the board while they are dropping quickly (you cannot pull pieces down while moving side to side), while starting at a lower level requires (for more optimal times) the player to take the initiative and build up higher to reduce the amount of time it takes to pull pieces down. These polar opposite strategies have been fully embraced by the community and for over a year have given us the benefit of 2 very different, very popular categories of speedrunning.

The attempt to merge the 2 categories together with the option to sort them by filter is not without merit, but there are a number of problems with it. I feel it's important that I state the main issues I've discovered here. For starters, anyone who has run both categories gets a big fat (Obsolete) above their video, which is just wrong. Also, for nearly every board, filters exist to examine differences in hardware, player location, etc. and rarely ever multiple bundled-together categories. The main problem I see with the filters is that runners are very unlikely to notice the Level 0 category if it's bundled in a filter, which means the gradual influx of new players is likely to stop entirely. Finally, the trophies earned in this category, while superficially displayed under the filters, no longer exist. I feel it's especially important to note that rcdrone put in a lot of effort to this category, and after he took 1st place, he continued to improve his time further. It's a really solid record that deserves the recognition that previously existed. "100 Lines, Level 0 Start" is a good, popular category with clear strategic implications and a thriving community of players, and should be treated as such on the boards. It is clear from the ensuing discussion that the vast majority of the community agrees, and your feedback counts for a lot.

With all this in mind, I am reinstating the category. The "100 Lines" category will not be altered at this time; players are free to continue submitting runs starting at any of the other levels. (Level 0 runs will either be kept in their own category or duplicated into the Level 0 filter.)

I want to make it clear that there should be no negative takeaway on either side. A decision was made with the intent of making things better. We all gained a lot of feedback about how such matters should be handled in the future. I personally have a lot of respect for RottDawg, and I want to note here that he verifies more runs than anyone else for this high-volume game, on a daily basis. (I login to verify runs nearly every day, but usually at night, hours after most daytime Tetris runs have already been verified.) I certainly hope he doesn't feel like I'm acting against him; all I'm doing is acting for the community, in response to lengthy and near-unanimous feedback.

2 asides for the moderating team to consider: firstly, the filter menu has a few categories that are identical. I believe levels 10-12, 13-15, and 16-18 operate at the same speeds (someone can verify this here) so perhaps those groups of 3 can be merged. Secondly, if there still exists a desire to remove a category, the "300K Points" category is worth consideration. It could also hypothetically be replaced by a 999,999 point "Maxout" category (perhaps for Jonas to rule forever). Or it could be left as is; it's still a popular category, and I think many people would agree that there should be at least one "Points" category.

This post is long enough already, so I'll leave it at that for now. Please let us know if anything is missing or inaccurate, but I believe every run was transferred correctly.

Thanks again for getting back to me so soon, PMYA. I'm glad that it was resolved so quickly, and that you were able to figure out what happened and improve your run in the process.

I've re-verified dadabeep's run. It's very strange that the sound effect the tire-shredders make in his run is higher pitched than normal, but everything else seems to suggest that the run is legitimate. I can only guess that the sound effect is perhaps an emulation anomaly, and it's rare to hear that in a single sound effect of an NES game. (I have perfect pitch so details like that tend to stand out.)

Sorry I couldn't fix everything during that very long stream. I'm glad we were able to talk in real time and that the resolution led to further improvement. I hope you'll keep trying to gain those 2 extra seconds!

After discussion and due consideration, I've taken down some categories. The 100K category will stay up as requested. I have made a complete record of everything that has been taken down, so that if there should ever be a section on the site for the runs that were on foreign systems, they will be readily available. There was also some excess content on the North American version that wasn't necessary. For example, the "8 Phases" category ends with the completion of a bonus round but the "10 Phases" category arbitrarily ended 2 levels later for no apparent reason, so it has been removed.