Results of Community Vote:

For RTA-TB: 24 (96%)

For IGT: 1 (4%)

The result is not close and is why this vote needed to happen.

The default timing method for Sonic 1 1991 moving forward is RTA-TB. IGT is still relevant as a secondary timing method.

-Sonic 1 Mod Team

Hello everyone,

Over the past few days, members of the Sonic 1 community has been in discussion over the current timing method that full-game runs use, which is IGT (In-Game-Time). IGT has been the primary timing method for practically the entire lifespan of the speedrun. As time went on, the speedrun has changed quite a lot, and the opinions of others have as well. Pausing has started to become practically mandatory for high level consistency, with members arguing that a penalty is warranted for the length of pause buffers, which IGT doesn't grant. Because of this, talks have been brewing to change this timing method to RTA-TB (Real-Time-Attack-Minus-Time-Bonus).

IGT is self-explanatory. Simply use the timer that the game provides as measurement to time the run. RTA-TB is standard RTA but with extra steps. The Minus Time Bonuses part subtracts the extra time the game gives you when you acquire time bonus and a continue at the end of every act. This is to prevent time loss from runners going fast, which doesn't make sense for a speedrun.

This topic has been around for years, with voting being done in the past, but the metagame in top level play has been shifting in favor of excessive pausing more and more so we are now revisiting it.

Voting is being done over at the official Classic Sonic Speedrunning Community Discord which can be found here: https://discord.com/invite/pvdewn9yQa The discussion can be found on the s1-1991-igt-vs-rta channel under the Sonic 1 section of the Discord. i recommend looking through the pinned comments to hear other Sonic 1 runner opinions.

Voter eligibility on the timing method poll must meet the following criteria:

• You must have a submitted fullgame Sonic 1 (1991) speedrun on SRC prior to the creation of this channel [March 16th, 2025]
• Must contribute to this discussion with an opinion on the matter (If a post of yours has been pinned on this channel, I consider you eligible to vote)

The voter eligible runners will be given a new discord role to gain access to another channel that will have access to the poll to vote on. Because altering a long lasting timing method is a huge turning point for the speedrun, I require a 70/30 percentage split or better in favor of RTA-TB for a timing method change to be put into effect.

Voting will be open for 72 hours, with it closing on March 24th, 2025 at 11:59PM EST

Here's hoping that the majority of the community will be satisfied by not needing to revisit this topic for the foreseeable future.

Thank you.