Due to the recent discovery of more heavy glitches in this game, we've decided to split the main categories into the subcategories "Unrestricted" and "Skipless". After some discussion in the Discord server it was decided that the definition of a "skip" should be as follows (quoted from the current rulesets):

Using any of the following methods to skip sections of tracks is not allowed in this category:

• going out of bounds (OoB)
• driving off-track to be respawned at a different section of the track
• abusing the finish line triggers to skip laps entirely

As a consequence, no matter how we tried our ways around it, the classic skip at the beginning of Hyper Spaceway (Velo race) would fall under what the 2nd bullet point describes and is sadly NOT allowed for Skipless. What follows is that most of the older runs will be default have to be under the Unrestricted subcategory since the vast majority use that very same trick.

The game typically incentivises the player to take all intended shortcuts in some way or another (e.g. by placing (time) crates or CNK letters in them or making the Velo ghost take them). There are still two more arguably unintended shortcuts that are classic staples of a CNK run:

• In Out of Time, jumping out of the clock segment to the left past a cactus to land off-road and cut the corner
• In Electron Avenue, landing on the rail of an anti-gravity segment to drop to the second half of that segment

In neither of those two cases can we observe any of the aforementioned characteristics of a skip. Therefore those tricks will stay valid in the Skipless subcategories.

The new skips and discoveries can be found here (shoutouts to @melancoliax and @Jamestoast):

New variations are found frequently so if anybody is interested to be part of the process, I implore you to join the Discord server using the invite link on the leaderboard!

As of a few days ago, there is a load remover for LiveSplit that will pause the timer during loading segments when CNK is played on the Dolphin emulator. It pauses anytime a loading screen appears as well as during the lag frames that precede the loading screens themselves. The plugin is memory-based i.e. it gets fed the information that the game is loading directly from the emulator itself, therefore it is technically as accurate as it can be. Since it is not based on visuals, this edition of the load remover cannot be used for consoles though -- but efforts to tackle this are being made!

Please use the Dolphin Load Remover (it's under 'Resources') in future emulator runs from now on. Existing emulator runs will be retimed to fit the leaderboard, now with console and emulator runs merged under the same category. The rules have been overhauled to reflect these new developments.