since a lot of restarts happen at first power, i think it makes sense to change the run start to first power confirm, instead of champ select.

in the long run, it saves a lot of time and action from restarting the timer.

I would definitely agree with this. Right now its a lot of restarting the clock.

I'll message the other mod on it, However, I see what you guys mean by it cutting down a bit on the tedious actions you'll have to do. I'll post here when we come to an agreement.

Upon further discussing this we have decided to keep the rules as they are. Restarting may be repetitive, but there's no disctinction from choosing your first power and susbequent ones in terms of how they are integrated in the gameplay. As decision making is a part of the run, any decision will be counted, even the ones you might already have made before starting the run. Think of it as an advantage over someone who just goes into the run without having a specific starting power in mind.

Other card based games like Slay the Spire also have heavy initial RNG factors that lead to many resets as well, while still having to be timed from the start, so we're also choosing to follow the precedent set by similar speedrun categories and games and keeping the entirety of what constitutes a lab run as part of the speedrun.

there's no disctinction from choosing your first power and susbequent ones in terms of how they are integrated in the gameplay

This has changed with (I think) the latest update, as you now get unlimited rerolls for your first power, but once you "actually" start the campaign you only have 3 rerolls. This change is why I would have suggested this today if it had not been suggested already.

Totally agree