The IL categories have alerted me to some version differences All versions other than PC are on version 1.3, which adds the Park Hills track & the Switchblade hydro jet Switchblade isn't much of a concern, it's a Manta with slightly more boost Park Hills is added to Regional Champs, Pro Am, World Cup, Ultimate Cup & All-Star Cup, and significantly changes those categories While technically these leaderboards can be filtered between different platforms as-is, splitting them into pre-1.3 & post-1.3 allows non-PC players to compete on either category
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkFw1_MpfgSxWkDd9ywXvrV5G9k8N6Dxq Made some videos on the best setup for the buffers I could find here or by myself. The biggest change is that you only need half as many buffers if you have config set to walk (you have Cancel held during the buffer, so default walk means you run during it). This makes a lot of things suddenly worth it, at the cost of having to hold Cancel to run for 7 hours Also if you buffer by 'rolling' Menu, then Cancel, failing the buffer opens the menu once. If you buffer by 'rolling' Cancel, then Menu, failing the buffer doesn't open the menu at all, so you know immediately if you've got it when the menu opens, which is a small time save.
The ones not mentioned in the thread yet are: Plant Spiders in the Evil Forest (inconsistent & not worth it because you need the exp, might be in Booster% though) Steiner's scene on the deck of the Cargo Ship out of Dali Burmecia Black Mages is actually one of the shortest buffers in the game if you get the right angle Zorn & Thorn raising the gate when you exit Alexandria into Gargant Roo Skipping the mandatory ATE in Black Mage Village is literally a fraction of a second faster One of the scenes with Mikoto on the way through Terra Zidane & Dagger looking down at the boat in the storm in Memoria It's slightly faster to skip the scene with the burning planet 2 screens before Lich
Moderation Rules page says Verifiers can self-verify but it says I don't have permission when I try. Maybe because it's a 1st Place run?
I've checked and it turns out that Freestyle timing is not as consistant as Elimination; timing can't end if you're in mid-air (to let you finish your last trick), so it can be a little over 1 minute.
This is visible in my Regional Champs PB: Sun & Surf (4:55) is exactly 1m from 'frame the checkered flag appears' to 'frame UI disappears' whereas Time to Shine (8:16) is 1m 2s (and 3 frames).
It could be argued that there is some skill in this, getting 3 stars and stopping in the water is harder than getting enough points in the last jump, not that it matters now that the star requirement has been removed; you can just sit still for the whole minute.
Even if stars get put back in, Freestyle is a 10m auto-scroller in All Series, and timing would require going frame by frame through the video as there is no in-game timer; not worth putting back in even with these small time differences.
I think this should be a thing Pros: The only category that does Time to Shine (it's usually skipped because it's Freestyle) You get to run against your gold splits (knowing I'm 20s behind sum of best is much easier than adding up 1:XX.XX 7 times and trying to work out if that's good) No AI = more consistent (Your first corner is always going to be rubbish with AI in the way) Cons: Requires online connection Only I run it (more people than most categories)