Serious paste about Piplup

I meme about Piplup route a lot, but in all honesty, I cannot in good conscience recommend the route to anyone. If you put any real effort into getting a good time, it is uniquely destructive to your mental health. If you just want to learn the basics and do a few decent runs, you'll spend the majority of your time learning and failing RNG manipulation. You won't actually play the game, which is the fun part. You'll be better off learning another speedgame or doing something productive outside of video games.

This is coming from a person who's probably played Piplup route more than anyone in history, and someone who values gaming/speedrunning more than most gamers.

I do understand the value of gaming with friends/communities, and of course the game comes second in that case. But if you have any choice at all, don't choose Piplup route.