After some discussions with the mod team, we feel the time has come to officially set a ruling on IGT manipulation for Console runs.

As you probably know the console version of SRT is timed using IGT. This is due to the complication of setting up a load remover for console. IGT has its flaws, but is infinitely more fair than using RTA when loads between consoles vary so widely.

With that being said IGT is very easy to abuse in a way that ruins the spirit of a speedrun. In the past we have not clearly defined what classifies as IGT abuse and going forward we would like to correct that.

"Excessive pausing" will not be allowed for submitted console runs. This means you cannot pause the game for more than 5 seconds to do something outside of the game. This includes pausing for a bathroom break, pausing to collect yourself, pausing to read chat, or pausing to do something IRL.

The spirit of a speedrun is to play through the game as quickly as possible; and to stop playing the game in the middle of your run and not be penalized feels like an oversight of the IGT system.

If your future submitted runs include excessive pausing they will not be rejected, however the time spent away from the game will be added to your ending IGT.

For trifecta runs console players are more than welcome to use the opening cutscenes to take a quick break in between games this will keep in line with PC runs in which the loadless timer doesn't run during the opening cutscenes. Outside of that, no more than 5 seconds should be spent paused in between games.

After a lot of discussion, we have decided to ban the use of coveless in Spyro 1 Any% NBS, and create a miscellaneous category called Any% NBS 1.0 for the runs that currently use it. It's been a tough decision, and not one that we're really happy with, but we believe that its best for the fairness and health of the game that this skip no longer be allowed.

For those who don't know; coveless is a trick that lets you skip going through the Gnorc Cove and Twilight Harbor vortexes to unlock Gnasty Gnorc, instead skipping straight into the level. This is possible using a trick called Fairy Storage, which is only possible on version 1.0 of the game (and Switch for some reason). This creates a major accessibility issue, since 1.0 can only be played with a disc that was produced before the game was patched to include Spyro 2 and 3 on disc. We've also found out that during this skip, the IGT counts during the load screen to Gnasty's world, which means that you need a PS5 with a disc reader to take full advantage of the skip, which is a completely unreasonable requirement to get optimal times.

To be clear, this isn't banning the entire concept of coveless, just the methods that are exclusive to certain platforms and versions. If a way to do coveless is found that the newest version of the game can do, it will be allowed. If you have any questions, you can ask in the Spyro speedrunning discord, or DM me directly at ToastedKat#7877.

• The SRT Mod Team