I noticed from a pretty recent run of All Characters that you still get encounters from doing a RLAS whilst being one point ahead in time matches. Which would save i believe a tiny amount like a second or so. If anyone is willing to check this out further.

Run in particular is by @thetincanthetincan at 2:19:04

I noticed that as well and was surprised lol. Could possibly save time? However I feel like (after my run today) it's a faster time save to just set to 1 stock in the rules. I don't know how much time frame perfect LRAS takes as opposed to GAME!, but I feel like you'd have to be frame perfect (or close) in order to save time. There's a lot of other areas for time save right now (BTT, Adventure, character fights), but if the records start coming down to seconds/fractions of seconds I might have to revisit this lol.

I am doing another run tomorrow with the Slippi 2.3.3 emulator (apparently allowed by the current ruleset as noted by @Nami), which will take ~30 minutes off of my time. I think I've optimized the vs matches, getting an average of 2:20 to go through all the stages in order, this will drop even further when using Slippi 2.3.3.

Appreciate you making a post! This was my first speedrun EVER, and I'm really excited about running the different Melee categories.

Made a rough estimation of the timesave. Keep in mind since the RLAS was on reaction. It can save more time.

oh wow, didn't even think about the fact that it skips victory animation! you're right, this is absolutely a time save

That’s crazy! I remember trying to use LRAS forever ago when first theorizing this run, but since it doesn’t increment the matches when done immediately I abandoned it. Never thought taking a stock would change that.

By my estimates, sub 2:05 console/1:25 emulator run should be doable with better Adventure/BTT/fights so we’re a good ways away from the records coming down to seconds. However, those require difficult execution and good RNG (with perfection 2:00/1:20 might be possible), so any easy consistent timesave like this is super welcome in the run.

Sadly i did a run today and it doesn't count for the matches. It does however count for if you are the winner or not. I highly recommend not going for it. Unless you wanna ruin a run like i did today xD