Today is the last day I have the free time to comfortably grind with the volume I've been doing it this weekend. Decent paces so far, but it's a failure if I don't PB again in either of the 2 streams I'll do today.

In the event that I PB today: Excellent. My goal is a 23:1X and I'll figure out if there's a way to balance my life to temporarily reach for that if my PB isn't quite there.  Long-term, I'll want to do something similar with 100 Egg since that category's optimization has similarly been weakened by new discoveries and potential implementations.

I've spoken about it with decent frequency on-stream, but, to put it in writing in a more accessible way, my job is very demanding in terms of hours spent working per week and I don't really have the ability to arrange my time to consistently play Spyro in a sustainable way. I love the game and I appreciate the community, but aside from this weekend, playing Spyro means sacrificing either the time I have to exercise or the time I have in my personal life and relationships. I don't really see that changing any time soon, so I feel like my life path is diverging from speedrunning more than it has before --- for better or for worse.

Anyway, in terms of tangible results from this weekend so far, here are some notes:

1. PB of 23:39 - I won't ever view this as anything other than a 23:1X that was killed by environmental circumstances. There's an audio cue I needed to listen for about 15 seconds before the run ended and a fan was on in my room since it was hot. I couldn't hear anything, so I had to guess. I guessed wrong, but, had the fan been off, it would have been a 23:1X almost without question. To me, it's the same as power getting cut 15 seconds before the run ended. Brutal, but a good calibrating run for future goals.

2. My top 10 runs are all 23:XXs now. Before this weekend, I had 4 23s. Now, I have 12. Here are my top 5.

----- Best: 23:36 (this weekend)
----- 2nd: 23:39 (this weekend)
----- 3rd: 23:40 (this weekend)
----- 4th: 23:43 (2 months ago)
----- 5th: 23:44 (3 years ago)

3. 13:04 Midday finish with egg timing (13:15 vehicle timing) - This was truly incredible. My only regret... Not pivoting the run into a Noodles% attempt.

***** Side Point *****

In my opinion, there should be a lot more nuance to the PSTV vs. PS2 conversations. The more we learn, the more we see how different they are. Here's the iceberg.

Surface Level: 
** PS2 loses 15ish seconds to PSTV in loads.
Right Under the Water: 
** PS2 saves back 5 frames on most eggs compared to PSTV.
** PS2 can do octopus clip consistently (it's not free though), which saves 5-8ish seconds compared to PSTV depending on execution.

Running Total of "translatable" timesave = PSTV saves 6-9 seconds compared to PS2.

Deeper Iceberg:
** Input latency advantages on PS2 save marginal time throughout the entire run. This is hard to calculate, but every line that isn't perfect and requires an adjustment is a line that is naturally corrected more quickly on PS2, which saves execution frames in every level throughout the run. In situations where true reaction is required (random elements like bosses and fodder proxies), this can be make-or-break occasionally.
** PS2 has cutscene crashes, which randomly lose time. These are relatively easy to calculate timeloss for when they happen, but there's no indicator on the leaderboards for it, which makes comparisons unclear.
** PSTV has random lag "spikes" which can disrupt tricks and cause runs to die. This doesn't meaningfully affect final times, but it does affect how consistent the game is overall. Since these don't exist on PS2, you can expect to get more consistent paces on PS2.

Even Deeper Iceberg:
** We have learned that many consoles types (and sometimes console models) perform differently compared to each other. PS2 is not the same as PS1, so shouldn't be viewed as a baseline for accuracy. Same with PSTV. However, with both not being accurate to PS1, we should acknowledge that PS2 actually has a significant advantage compared to PSTV. You can see the evidence of this with the telegraphed pause setups that involve mobys. Using Fireworks Factory as an example, PSTV has at least 3 main branch variations that entirely depend on random lag rather than player execution. A PS2 console will not have those same issues. So, a PSTV player could reach Fireworks Factory, do everything perfectly, and still miss it. That will not happen on PS2. Again, doesn't affect final time, but it makes "getting a time" easier and more consistent on PS2.

Deepest Iceberg:
** What we will have to acknowledge at some point is that these PSTV lag-based variations aren't happening "because" of the telegraphed pause setups - we are NOTICING them because of the setups. Before the pause setups, these failures would be attributed to human error. In some cases, that was true. In some cases, it was not. EVERY level that has a trick involving an enemy is likely subject to the random variation on PSTV - whether there's a telegraphed pause or not. Which means EVERY level that has a trick involving an enemy peaks at a higher consistency on PS2 compared to PSTV. Again, this doesn't affect final time, but it means that it is easier to get times on PS2 because console-based consistency is higher. 
** If we use consistency as the measure of difficulty, then every run done on PS2 is "easier" than every run done on PSTV with what we know because there are likely at least 10 tricks in the run that are more consistent *as a result of the CONSOLE* rather than the player.

I don't think that PSTV and PS2 runs can/should be directly compared. Same with all other console setups, but those are the relevant ones right now. In my opinion, it's disingenuous to say "Well, this would have been XX:XX on PSTV" because it's not that simple. It wouldn't have been. Time would have been lost to input latency, telegraphed setups that were used might not have worked on PSTV even with the main branch, tricks could have been failed because of PSTV lag spikes, and the likelihood of the entire run happening as it did would be remarkably lowered by the console variations that reduce consistency throughout the entire run.

Either console is fine to play on. I don't really care about that. In general, times on all consoles should be acknowledged for what they are and the process needed to get those runs. My opinion though is that they're not clearly comparable when runs are close and I think it's probably true that if you have a PS2 console that doesn't often get cutscene crashes, then PS2 has the advantage for "time it takes grinding to get a good run" while PSTV has the advantage for "potential optimization". If players want to / care about being compared to each other, they can create that comparison by playing with the same console circumstances of whoever they'd like to compare to. For me, that's not really what speedrunning is about, but, separate from my preference to insulate my motivation for speedrunning from external comparison, oversimplified discussions and calculations are a negative community circumstance that should be avoided.