Just checked out the rules and was wondering if the hats go against the "starting presents" rule or not? They aren't a present and they are randomized per level if turned on. Was just wondering whether they need to be off or not.

Good question!

I think hats are OK, it should be up to the user whether they want to make use of an available gameplay option. I look at it as a player's choice, part of the game, like choosing a character that has the best stats to compliment their strategy, or whether to risk the RNG to get a good doorway.

Will hats help, or hinder? We simply don't know the trends yet, which makes it difficult to judge whether hat runs will need to be separated out into their own category. Time will tell. At least to start with, I think keeping the categories minimal is a good thing.

Allowing the player to choose whether hats are enabled adds to the variety - which I am all for! When the timer is running, as long as you all started the game on an equal footing, how you interact with the game and your choices are what make speedrunning so compelling.

What do you think?

I think hats can be their own category, but for my run on Random World I didn’t use it.

For the Hard mode run that I'm waiting to be submitted, I didn't use hats, though at times I wish I did.