AM (b. 1986 in Korea) is a competitive Touhou player, active since November 2003, who specializes in Imperishable Night and Subterranean Animism. As of December 2008, AM holds world records in both the Lunatic and Extra modes of Subterranean Animism.
Subterranean Animism
Since the debut of Subterranean Animism, the Lunatic and Extra categories had consistently been dominated by UnKnown and たろー, respectively. On October 30, AM broke UnKnown's Lunatic record with a score of 3.645 billion points, and since then, he has improved it multiple times. Originally having set a target of 3.9 billion, AM exceeded his own expectations by breaking 4 billion, using new scoring strategies such as bombing Orin's "Needle Mountain" spellcard for 2000+ graze. On October 26, AM bested たろー's Extra record with a score of 1.091 billion, and since then has improved it to 1.101 billion. He believes that the theoretical maximum is 1.11 billion.
Imperishable Night
AM is also the most dominant player in Imperishable Night's Extra mode, holding the highest known score with every character, including the popular 3.010 billion Youmu replay. This score attack maintains an extremely high quality of play, as AM grazes through nearly every spellcard with no visible mistakes and accumulates over 100,000 time orbs in the process. He speculates that 3.1 billion points may be attainable under perfect play, and he has set 3.05 billion as a future goal. AM is also aiming to dominate the Easy mode in a similar way, currently holding 10 world records out of 12 possible on the B-route. The highest among them, set with Marisa, attains a score of 3.104 billion.
AM's good friend YASU, who currently holds the Imperishable Night WR at 5.765 billion, has speculated that 6 billion points may be possible using Youmu and Yuyuko. As of December 2008, AM is experimenting with different strategies to determine if this score is practically attainable. [1] He is playing various stages on Practice Mode, and has achieved a score of 1.46 billion on Level 6B. AM's current best Lunatic score is 5.213 billion, ranked 11th overall, and it remains to be seen if he can topple one of the oldest surviving world records from competitive Touhou.
Perfect Cherry Blossom
AM currently holds the fourth highest overall score in Perfect Cherry Blossom with 2.730 billion points. He initially wanted to break 3 billion points, but admitted to have failed that goal, blaming lack of patience. However, he has also confirmed he may return to it in the future, despite stiff competition from HS参謀, who currently holds world records under every difficulty and character type.
Personal
AM speaks some Japanese, and maintains a journal about his Touhou achievements in both his native Korean and Japanese, the latter with the help of an automated translator.
Notable player records
| Game | Mode | Score | Date | Character type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perfect Cherry Blossom | Lunatic | 2,730,863,160 (#4) | 2008/09/27 | Sakuya-B | |
| Imperishable Night | Easy | 3,104,212,600 (WR) | 2008/08/04 | Marisa solo | Accumulated point item value is 762,730 |
| Extra | 3,010,565,950 (WR) | 2007/10/31 | Youmu solo | No-miss clear; 104,755 time orbs obtained | |
| Subterranean Animism | Lunatic | 4,005,225,500 (WR) | 2008/11/08 | Reimu-A | 82,810 graze. Cleared with 5 lives. Missed Satori's Butterfly Reawakening. |
| Extra | 1,101,675,500 (WR) | 2008/11/23 | Reimu-A | 27,021 graze. No-miss + all spellcards captured. |