Good idea using the 2nd Weird Ed cutscene instead of the first to get past Tentacle. Less lag and action interruption the way you did it. After he answers the door or captures someone, I think the downtime before he'll respond to the doorbell again is about 35 seconds, which I found to be one of the biggest challenges to plan around.
The reduced lag is significant, and I feel like moving the capture to the beginning of the Lab sequence lets us multitask a little bit more beforehand. I'm working on TASing stuff out to see how it all shakes out in the end but I have a feeling this is going to lead to a ridiculous time. I'm glad I got to see it live!
Seems to be how it goes... Every time something is found that's pertinent to a category its like a wall breaks, hilarity and madness ensue and it just gets faster and faster. At some point we'll run out of walls. It's taken a long time to break this game to this point. GG everyone!
Threw together a theory TAS (some inputs were borrowed from Arc's published TAS on TASvideos) and it clocks in around 6:09 by RTA timing. Not sure if the route is optimal but I'll try a couple things today.
5:47 Rta equivalent with circuit strats.
What a phenomenal route upgrade you've worked out. Mindblowing efficiency
While we're at it here's a 5:39 RTA equivalent TAS with a new route that is probably not RTA viable. Don't try this at home kids!
With the Old Rusty Key in hand this new Circuit Breaker strat will probably break Dave Solo% too if it becomes a ranked category since New Kid is off limits on that one.
Since I've been turning this thread into a vod archive. Here's a TASed 5:35 without a lot of optimization using Edna juke and opening the valve as early as possible. I actually have to do that new kid walk toward the gargoyle or else I can't close the valve in time. It's that tight. This could easily creep towards the 5:30 mark but I want to share the ideas as maybe someone else can build off it.
This is on topic for once. I found an even faster Fred Skip.
Basically you throw the switch and run back out the door. Do a new kid storage as the lab screen is loading (select then A on new kid, then Start at the right time.) Fred's cutscene starts faster than doing the new kid to someone else and then back to Dave. This saves around 2s.