The German Trainer TZPokemon98 took on a crazy challenge: He wanted to run 500 km in one week while diligently playing Pokémon GO. In the end, he even surpassed his goal.
Which player is it about? If you are somewhat familiar with the extreme players in Pokémon GO, you have certainly heard of TZ. He currently has the most catches and evolutions in Germany, or there is no one else known to have more.
Time and again, TZ sets himself crazy goals that he wants to achieve. Last week, it was the 500 km. We asked him about his motivation.
“When I do something, I do it right”
Why does he set such goals? On Twitter, TZ answered a few questions about his challenges and explained why he plays so extremely.
He says he likes to compare himself with other players and aims to surpass one trainer after another on the leaderboards. For this, he is willing to push his limits and says about himself: “When I do something, I do it right.”
This is how the 500 km challenge went: TZ wanted to run a total of 500 km in one week. This can be well tracked via Adventure Sync. During the week, he diligently posted his progress, and by the weekend, he even trumped his goal: he ran 567 km!
This corresponds to 81 km per day. According to his own statements, he caught 15,000 Pokémon and earned over 11 million XP.
How much do you have to play for that? TZ told us that he was out every day that week from 7:00 AM until 12:30 AM at night. During this time, he only took small breaks or took the bus to the nearest large city.
So he played Pokémon GO for over 17 hours a day, mainly running to complete the 500 km.
For the challenge, he actually took a week off. Only then did he have enough time to run that much.
What is so remarkable about it: If you thought that he obviously caught the 15,000 Pokémon in a big city with many PokéStops, you are mistaken.
TZ lives in a small town with about 9,000 inhabitants. He plays there, according to his own statements, about 50% of the time. The other 50% he plays in Augsburg. He often plays alone. He only goes out with friends if they have time and are willing.
What’s next? The 500 km were far from TZ’s last goal. He wants to keep going and maybe aim for 600 km in the summer.
Other goals are 1 million catches and 1 billion XP. Both goals are not unrealistic. After all, he has already achieved over 700,000 catches and over 400 million XP, most of which he earned without spending money. Only since September 2019 has he also invested in PokéCoins.
A tough competitor of TZ is, by the way, HelsinkiTrolli. He had every shiny and lucky Pokémon in the game months ago:
