Racing on twitch with Beyond Chaos

It wouldn't be segmented, RTA rules allow you to save and reset as long as you don't stop the timer. Even if you were forced to kill yourself and watch the game over screen, I still think this strategy would be faster because it takes so long to fight enemies. You don't just count the time it takes to fight one battle, you have to count the time it takes to fight enough enemies to become strong enough to fight that one battle, too.

That 10th shop makes a huge difference, because you don't know which team is going to be able to find it, and you have to move all the teams to reach it, so you don't have access to the 500 GP save point. Although to be honest, I'm not sure it makes enough of a difference that the strat I'm proposing wouldn't be reliable. We might all be chumps for fighting encounters in the cave in the first place.