A lot of speedruns will not only use specific versions of online patchable games, but old games will have players use specifically Japanese or European physica

A lot of speedruns will not only use specific versions of online patchable games, but old games will have players use specifically Japanese or European physical copies for the same reason: there are glitches that are only present on the Japanese version of Pokemon Red/Blue that were fixed for the NA release, for example. Some of the time it gets really weird, like people specifically using the Wii Virtual Console re-release of a game in order to take advantage of its emulator being different from physical hardware - which is (usually) allowed, because it's still an "official release".