Category Miscellaneous (should we mark it as a miscellaneous category? Replace [ ] with [x] for your answer):

• yes
• no

Posted by @LRFLEW in Discord, and also a great example of why NOT to make it too large

Category Name: LA%

Category Rules: Same rules as Any%, except for timing end. Timing ends when you finishing Dice 2 in 1st place.

Category Rationale: The current selection of categories lacks any real beginner-friendly option. For many reasons, the current non-misc categories (Any%, 100%, NG+, and Arcade%) requires too much to learn for people unfamiliar with either the game or speedrunning. (I included Arcade% as non-misc as it is a subset of Any% (like Any% is to 100%) instead of having additional restrictions and rules or using a modded game)

Run Duration: The WR for Any% is just over 2 hours 38 minutes, with NG+ being just a little faster and 100% being over an hour longer. This is significantly longer than the popular categories on speedrun.com. If you look at the games list (https://www.speedrun.com/games) and sort by either "active players" or "player count", you will see that the games' main category are all significantly faster than for MC2, with all the ones I've seen being under 1 hour 30 minutes. This means that Any% is a massive time commitment in comparison, so people looking to try speedrunning will look elsewhere. LA% would easily be sub-50 minute, which would make it the fastest category. The only category currently that is reasonably quick is Arcade%, but this category has another problem for beginners. Learning Curve: The length of Any% means that there is a lot you need to memorize to do an adequate run. The route for Any% includes not only the path to take in the races (especially for unordered races), but also what cars to do and when, what order to do the racers in, and obscure strategies for follow manipulations, making it a rather complicated run to learn. NG+ and Arcade% are easier to learn, but suffer from being part of the end-game. Because you use end-game vehicles for these runs, you end up driving at extremely fast speeds, putting a heavy emphasis on race memorization. LA% being early-game has a simpler route for new runners to learn, and the slower speed and simpler races allows them to react more and memorize less.

Racing Potential: Due to its shorter length, LA% is a great category for speedracing (where multiple people run the category at the same time and race eachother with it). @itsDare (Dice) and I did an LA% race a little over a week ago, and we both did another race with @JumpingBamboo (Zen) and @MustacheThief a few days ago. LA% is the best race category I've found for this game for the reasons I mentioned above. Races like this can do a lot to bring attention to smaller speedrun games like this, especially through sites like SpeedRunsLive (http://www.speedrunslive.com/races). Adding the category to the leaderboards, and therefore legitimizing the runs, will encurage runners (and me) to do more of these live races. Gateway Category: Unlike Arcade%, The routing learned for LA% carries over to Any%. This means that once people learn and are comfortable with LA%, they will be more likely to carry over the skills and learn the Any% category. Conversely, Because LA% is a subset of Any%, there are already a number of LA% runs we can add to the category right away by re-timing the current Any% records (Timing the video proof is quick, and more than accurate enough for second-level accuracy). Adding LA% will create an already-lively category, as well as bring attention to the main Any% category.

Conclusion: I believe adding the LA% category to the speedrun.com leaderboards will be a great benefit to the game's speedrunning community as a whole. Please consider adding it to the leaderboards. Thank You.