Very impressive ! And I know better than anyone how hard it is to get S9 here. I will update this today, and the 20G leaderboard as well.
First post updated with the real new WR now by KOO. 8min15, it is 36sec faster than my fastest S8. At 500 he had a 4min42 with a clean high stack, my best 500 is a 4min44 with a bottom stack. It is hard to see 15 years of regular practice and skill, be destroyed like that...But I still feel a satisfaction to have triggered a divine reaction from one of the TGM Gods.
I already spoke in depth with Amnesia about this, but I think it'll be good to post this on TC for people who might want to do some item mode runs. Comparing my s9 with Amenesia's most recent game and KOO's WR, I counted the number of items used in the first half of the game: KOO: 8, only one item used without burning another item in the process. One double burn. Me: 9, one item used without burning another. Amnesia: 13, several items used without burning another item. In Item mode, you do not want to take every item. It is fully possible to stack around the item blocks until another one spawns on the screen. You can then take the more benign choice and burn the more dangerous item. I typically take items that don't alter my stack, if I can help it. Time attack items and consistency items may differ slightly, depending on animation length and how they affect your stack. Other misc tips: If you end up with a hard block, try to place it horizontally. Vertical placements result in hard blocks in 3 rows instead of just 2 for most of the minos. Del field's are useful for getting you out of a bind, but they also may be a net time loss, and they take critical grade points out of play. Exchange field is useless, but often appears around shotgun and negafield. You can use exchange field as a burner item. I explained some of this in my GDQ submission video, but I felt like I didn't have enough time to go in depth.
Trying to prepare the best possible defense until Kevin decides to kick me out in this mode as well...
