Sorry for the late announcement, but as of yesterday evening all Wave 3 categories are live! This includes Rock Cup and Moon Cup under DLC Cups on the main game page, as well as Wave 3 on the category extensions page.

Additionally, Waves 1+2 categories have been added for Time Trials and Mushrooms Only category extensions. We've also added a "Custom Items" subcategory for Blue Yourself separate from the main leaderboard - have fun!

Hi everyone, we made this announcement in the MK8 speedrun Discord server as well, but here it is in case you didn't see it or aren't in the server:

1. We will have cup and 16-track categories for DLC. This means that only cup runs will be added to the main leaderboard with the release of the first wave of DLC. Although 16-track groupings make less structural sense for DLC than for the original 48 tracks, 8-track speedruns would be too similar to cup runs, and having 16-track categories will maintain the good category length balance that many of us enjoy currently. These categories will likely be titled something like "Waves 1/2", etc., but that isn't set yet.

2. These new categories will not go live immediately; they will be added approximately a week after DLC releases. Once we're closer to that date, we'll choose an exact date/time and let everyone know. This is standard when a new game or DLC is released, and it is meant to prevent the leaderboard and verification team from being swamped with many unoptimized submissions that could be easily beaten again.

3. Although we will not be adding “Wave 1” speedrun categories to the main leaderboard, we are considering adding 8-track category extensions for this wave to give people a structured leaderboard for all of the current DLC. We would like to know the interest level of the community, so please take a few seconds to vote below if you would run an 8-track category! Please note that if we do add these category extensions, we are still unsure whether they would be permanent or if we would lock or even delete them after Wave 2 of the booster course pass comes out. https://strawpoll.com/polls/w4nWDqkmJgA

Hello everyone! In the interest of preventing 99% and 100% from becoming competitions of who can take the fewest breaks (which is unhealthy and could lead to injury), we've decided to implement a break system so runners can take some time to rest, eat, etc., without their time being punished. This will only affect the few people who decide to tackle these categories, but I wanted to make sure everyone who's interested was aware of it. Major credit goes to the Super Mario Odyssey speedrun community; I adapted this from the rules of SMO's All Moons/100% categories. Props to them for coming up with a fantastic system! Feel free to reply to this post with any questions. Here's a summary:

To start a break, you must press the Home button to suspend the game software, and the software must remain suspended for the entirety of the break.

Runs start out with 1 break and 15 minutes in the pool, and get another break and 15 minutes added to that pool after every 4 hours of runtime.

• Under 4 hrs - 1 break, 15 minutes total
• 4 - 8 hrs - 2 breaks, 30 minutes total
• 8 - 12 hrs - 3 breaks, 45 minutes total
• 12 - 16 hrs - 4 breaks, 60 minutes total
• etc.

Breaks can be saved for later, meaning that the first break does not have to be taken within the first 4 hours of the run. However, a break should not be taken before you passed the required runtime for it to get added to the pool. As an example, the third break for runs lasting longer than 8 hours should not be taken before you passed the 8-hour mark. Breaks have neither a minimum nor a maximum length, but you cannot exceed your total break time. If you take a 7-minute break in the first 4 hours of the run, your second break past the 4-hour mark can take up to 23 minutes.

TL;DR: Please DO NOT use IGT when submitting your runs. Input "Time" like always.

Hi! We've just enabled IGT timing for this game, since the mods are aiming to have frame-accurate IGTs put in for at least the top 3 digital and top 3 cartridge runs for each major category (cups will come later if they happen). I'm writing this to ask YOU as a speedrunner of this game to NOT USE the IGT field when submitting your own runs. Continue to use the "Time" field instead.

If there was a way for us to make the IGT field accessible to only mods, we would, but speedrun.com isn't very flexible when it comes to minor options like that. We're capable of deleting the IGT of any runs submitted with it, but that's a huge hassle to deal with (again largely due to speedrun.com's quirks; the process of editing single runs while trying to verify single runs is not well streamlined) and we'd prefer if everyone could help us out by simply continuing to submit only their RTA time.

The outcome of this should be that only around 6 runs per category will display IGT. This does mean that the majority of runs will not be afforded the luxury of accurate IGT comparison. This is unfortunate in some ways, but we want IGT to carry a high standard of accuracy and reliability, which is sadly impossible if we allow everyone to submit with IGT.

A brief tangent—make sure you're only submitting milliseconds if you know them accurately and input them correctly. We aren't strict with this because we know most of you are capable of doing this and it doesn't usually matter much, but there are a lot of video-less runs submitted with milliseconds that I don't feel very confident in, and even lots of runs with video that have blatantly incorrect times entered.

With all the above said, if you're interested in helping out with this timing project, please join the Discord server and direct your attention to the proper channel!

Moving this discussion over from the main leaderboard forum. I agree with DillPickel; I think 100% should be all Grand Prix stars and all kart parts (except maybe the gold glider since coin grinding does not make for an enjoyable category). All stars can be achieved by doing all Grand Prix cups on 150cc, Mirror, and 200cc, and you'd need to beat all 150cc staff ghosts to unlock gold Mario. Not sure if beating all 200cc staff ghosts should be required as well, since doing so doesn't unlock anything (thanks Nintendo) and you would already have to play all tracks on 200cc to get all the Grand Prix stars.

Please read this fully before asking questions in the forum!

Q: Is the digital or cartridge version faster? A: Digital is much faster (and beyond that, the system reads the game slightly faster when it’s saved directly in the Switch’s internal memory compared to a microSD card). It saves about 3 seconds on the first loading screen and about 1 second on every other loading screen compared to cartridge.

Q: Why don’t we use IGT (in-game time) instead of RTA (real time) to discount loading discrepancies between versions? A: This is a great question, and ideally we would use IGT. However, since Nintendo decided to remove the in-game timer from MK8 for a reason I cannot fathom and every method of timing it ourselves is simply unrealistic, this is pretty much out of the question. Another proposed solution has been to subtract a set amount of time from cartridge runs to level the playing field (or something similar), but loading times vary too much even within versions for this to be viable. There has also been talk off and on about making a video-based auto-splitter, but for the moment RTA is the best we’ve got.

Q: Can I submit sections of a longer run (like the Retro Tracks portion of a 32 Tracks run)? A: Yes! As long as the tracks for the section are done back to back, it is perfectly acceptable to submit the section. Runs contained in longer runs have a longer initial loading time and don’t start out with 5 coins. Also see https://www.speedrun.com/mk8dx/thread/wa4sr

Q: Do I need a video recording of my run for it to be verified? A: Only the top 5 runs of each category and the top 3 cartridge runs need video proof. That being said, video and splits are always welcome sources of information about any run, regardless of the time!

Q: Do I need a capture card to record my run? A: Not at all! Most alternatives such as phone cameras and webcams aren’t as high quality as capture cards, but they are perfectly valid as long as what’s happening on the screen is clear.

Q: What if I make a mistake when submitting my run? A: Whether you submit a run to the wrong category, with the wrong time, or something else, you can edit submitted runs by going to View Profile > Pending Actions, clicking on the time of the run you want to edit, and selecting Edit Run from the three dots.

Q: Why isn’t there a leaderboard for individual tracks or time trials? A: Several other sites already keep track of time trial records, such as this one: https://mkwrs.com/mk8dx/ and this one: https://www.mkleaderboards.com/mk8dx and this one: http://www.mariokart64.com/mk8/ and this YouTube channel: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC_292L5mAJowD4LCCNZRbHg. We would be heightening the redundancy even more my having our own leaderboard.

Q: What’s the best character combo? A: I wrote a guide on this for 150cc: https://www.speedrun.com/mk8dx/guide/cj0ma. For 200cc, the short answer is biddybuggy, rollers, and a character in a weight range anywhere from Mario to Waluigi.

Q: Why aren’t digital and cartridge times separated? A: In one sense, they are. You can filter the leaderboard to show only cartridge or only digital runs. They aren’t separate categories, though, for several reasons: First, simplicity. Adding separate cartridge categories would double the number of categories. Second, version differences do not affect the gameplay whatsoever. Third, the time difference is relatively small compared to what you can achieve through personal improvement. In the most extreme case, the difference in loading time in a 48-track run is approximately 1 minute, but the difference between first and last place in 150cc No Items is over 30 minutes. There’s ALWAYS room to improve your own time if you don’t want to buy the digital version, even for top players. Finally, no one is excluded from obtaining a digital copy. If you truly want to have the fastest time possible, a digital copy is readily obtainable. Yes, it costs money. The mods realize that. BUT, it has been decided that the cost barrier is not a valid excuse to separate the leaderboard. This is not unlike the reasoning behind requiring video proof for the top 5 times; you must provide some way to view your runs, even if it means buying equipment. This topic has been thoroughly discussed and firmly decided on. Please don’t petition to have it changed unless you think you have new evidence or arguments.

If you have a question that wasn’t answered here, try looking in the Resources and Guides sections on this site. If you STILL don’t have the answer you’re looking for, feel free to ask your question in a NEW question thread or in the Discord! (Please try to keep this thread uncluttered if possible!) Many people are happy to answer questions, especially if they’re well-researched and original. Good luck on your runs!

Maci’s run is Itemless, unless I’m completely blind. It’s still a WR and really impressive, just not in the right category.