I've seen this technique used in Clay's ark2us inp using Mame 36b1. I have a couple of questions before I vote as I don't know the game.(posted 9030 days ago)1. To do this trick requires you to get one of the powerups (N I think) that somehow always keeps 3 balls bouncing around by splitting if necessary. Is this powerup always available in this stage or is it random?
2. Is it sustainable forever or for a long time?
The technique does not require a lot of skill to perform and there is little risk in doing it which goes against the technique. However, it seems to be a natural part of the game so as long as you can't do it indefinitely and it is available in every game (not random) then those are two points in favour of allowing the technique.
In the case of Clay's inp he got 800k, 700k by this technique alone, i.e. more than 80% of his points were obtained using a low risk leech technique. To me this is too much so I'd be inclined to ban that inp but not necessarily the technique in general. If Clay could have gone on after stage 5 leeching and get much further into the game then it would have been perfectly acceptable. Basically I attach what I refer to as a leech factor to each inp - refer to the formula I use in "A question on the definition of points leeching".