
Teenager beats Tetris game older than he is to become world champion [video] - cjCamel
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/45943854
======
sreyaNotfilc
They keep taking the entire event down (~7 hours of competition) on the CTCW
YouTube page, but luckily someone thought ahead and recorded the Semi-Finals.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHMLwgE4ZG8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHMLwgE4ZG8)

I've been following competitive Tetris for the past 2 years now. It slid into
my YT feed and I've been hooked.

I got to watch the stream live!

Jonas is the man! He's won it multiple times and plays a beautiful game. I
thought he had the kid, Joseph, for a moment with a +100k lead. But, as he
topped out Joseph was able to keep his composure. I was beautiful to watch and
I gave him a standing ovation (from my living room).

The cool thing is, the kid worked hard at the game for about a year before
joining the competition. He studied videos on YouTube and just became obsessed
with the game. He's the next wave (which the Tetris community had been
discussing for the past few years), and its cool to see that this game is not
dead yet. Its virtual chess.

The Tetris community is a good one. Its seems as if everyone backs everyone.
There are no egos, just humble-pie Tetris. Jonas was a class act at the end
congratulating the kid.

If you have a chance, please watch the video. You'll be amazed with the
skill/tactics involved in this game.

 _edit_ Here's the winning match! Just watched it again. It give me
goosebumps!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9rXBQLfjjE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9rXBQLfjjE)

~~~
will_brown
For years I’ve been clamoring for competitive heads up Tetris...and I knew
there would be an audience for it.

The crazy thing...what you link isn’t even the exciting 2 player mode. I’m not
sure if it’s the nes or snes version but 2 player is more of a battle mode
where your 2 lines, 3 lines and Tetris’ get included on your opponents side.
The winner is last man standing (not score).

~~~
pyi
The modern Tetris games include these versus modes, but they don't really
translate well to a truly competitive playing experience IMO. It basically
boils down to pure mechanical skill (who can send damage to the opponent
faster) without much nuance beyond that -- there are no mechanisms to out-plan
your opponent to a victory. Luck plays a huge factor as well -- if you send a
bunch of damage to your opponent, you might give them a free Tetris just
because of how the garbage randomly forms.

I think the NES Tetris score attack ruleset is better suited for pure
competition. Both players receive the same pieces with the same RNG seed and
it comes down to who can balance the management of their stack and maximizing
the score the best.

~~~
dragontamer
Wait... whaaa??

1\. Center 4-wide combos: While largely hated, this is not a "luck based"
strategy. Its memorization of the various forms that a center-4wide well
creates, to maximize the quadratic damage formula of modern SRS Tetris Games
with respect to combos. Perform the longest combo, you deal a LOT of damage.

2\. Perfect clear players: I've played vs people who can consistently get
2-perfect clears at the beginning, and often times can hit me with a 3rd.
Perfect-clears do 10-rows of damage (against a typical Tetris field of 22 or
so), so 2x Perfect clears in the opening is darn near lethal. Regardless, the
"Perfect Clear" is the epitome of "planning ahead".

3\. DT Cannon: Amemitaya loves his TSpin Double + TSpin Triple setup, and can
even perfect-clear or side-4wide afterwards.

4\. TKI: A technique to get a TSpin-double within 7-drops. Its the fastest way
to damage the opponent, and can stuff a Perfect-clear opening (it takes
10-drops to create a perfect clear. It only takes 7-drops to TKI).

5\. BT-Cannon: The reversed DT-Cannon is a TSpin Triple followed up by a TSpin
Double. It has different properties and its own set of followers. Honestly, I
don't understand this at all, but that's the cool part of SRS Tetris: there's
lots of different strategies!

Some Youtube References for non-Tetris folk:

1: Wumbo does 4wide when he gets serious:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieLTP0mIV0o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieLTP0mIV0o)

2\. Wumbo also does Perfect Clears sometimes:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YjTu0mByfg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YjTu0mByfg)

3\. Amemitaya usually does DT Cannon into various followups. I can't find any
Amemitaya videos, but this guy on gets the concept:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJVN0Wlv-
Uo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJVN0Wlv-Uo)

4\. TKI followed up by King Crimson:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXraaMWK6PI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXraaMWK6PI)
. You can see the speed at which TKI is executed, which makes it good vs
Perfect Clear players.

5\. BT-Cannon->CSpin Perfect Clear loop:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umNTGq9p0qQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umNTGq9p0qQ)

\-------

There are a LOT of different strategies in modern "fast" Tetris games. You
play vs the same opponent a lot, like first-to-20 or so, to figure out which
openings they like and try to switch your openings to best theirs.

Anyway, the main difference between "Modern Tetris" and "Classic Tetris" is
that the RNG of modern Tetris is far more forgiving. "Classic Tetris" is a
truly random piece, with a lookahead of 1.

"Modern SRS Tetris" is a bag-RNG (every 7-pieces are permuted, and then given
to you in a random order), ensuring an even distribution of pieces.
Furthermore, you have a lookahead of 5, so you can plan out your strategies
far more reliably in Modern Tetris.

I personally prefer SRS Tetris. But I give credit to the classic-Tetris
players. Due to the RNG being so much less forgiving in classic-Tetris, its an
entirely different skillset and a different game. Furthermore, SRS Tetris is
more forgiving with placement of pieces. SRS Tetris looks faster: but a lot of
it is because its controls are easier.

Classic Tetris is kinda like watching a Street Fighter 2 player. Laypeople
won't be able to tell how difficult some of those moves are. SRS Tetris is
more like Dragonball FighterZ, with easier to do combos and automatic-tracking
enabled. The combos are flashier and longer, but that's because they're way
easier to do than SF2 combos.

~~~
foobaw
I consider them two different games and I've been a member of Hard Drop for a
long time.

I used to have Top 100 records on both Sprint (sub 50 seconds) and Ultra, and
one day, confidently challenged a top-Classic player to a classic game and got
crushed. So much respect to classic players.

~~~
dragontamer
Any serious Modern SRS Tetris player gives mad credit to the crazy people who
prefer to play WITHOUT the "SRS Training-wheels". Lol.

Those classic Tetris masters are truly nuts. That game is way harder and less
flashy. I'll stick to my SRS Bag Randomizer thank you very much...

------
bliblah
The first thing I show people that don't believe me when I say high level
Tetris is hype as heck is the Grand master Exhibitions during Summer Games
Done Quick in 2015 [1] and 2016 [2].

My jaw fell to the floor when I saw them beat the game at near instant speed
with _invisible_ blocks. I just can't process how fast these guys play.

Really glad this community is getting more exposure and more young blood is
joining the scene!

[1][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwDUiCzPVU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwDUiCzPVU)

[2][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPQFeMRXwmg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPQFeMRXwmg)

------
mproud
This just in: Apparently every Chess and Go champion in the last millennia is
younger than the game.

~~~
CM30
Same goes for any LPer, speedrunner, eSports player or gamer involved in
playing basically any video game before the last generation or so.

Bet most Smash Bros Melee/GoldenEye/Ocarina of Time players aren't older than
the games they're playing!

~~~
smus
You'd be surprised, the Melee scene is fairly old on average. I compete
regularly and I'd be shocked if even 5% of the scene is younger than Melee.

------
dzdt
My childhood claim to fame with tetris was to get a negative score on the
windows 3.1 version. It turned out the points were stored in a 16 bit integer
and wrapped to negative values above 32767.

For sure in that version the "hypertap" approach was superior to holding down
the arrow keys. Even with the highest repeat key settings in windows you could
get more moves per second by tapping.

~~~
httpsterio
At least in classic tetris and a few other games this has to do with
controller polling. If I remember correctly it polls the controller at 30 or
60hz so you'd get the commands in at just before the frame redraws if you're
tapping at that speed. I dunno about key repearters though.

------
mabbo
The BBC website won't display the video of this to me unless I install their
app. There's something deeply wrong with that.

~~~
paulcole
> There's something deeply wrong with that

Genuinely curious what you think is specifically wrong with it? If the BBC
feels the app provides a better experience isn't that up to them?

~~~
hughes
Can't tell if you're trolling, but the video player user experience has
nothing to do with what app you're in. It's entirely reasonable to expect a
good in-browser video experience. Additionally, requiring a domain-specific
app to be installed is an extremely negative UX.

~~~
paulcole
I’m not trolling, I simply disagree that a company making a decision about
their own product is “deeply troubling.” A little annoying, perhaps.

------
pishpash
Title makes no sense to me ("Teenager beats Tetris game older than he is to
become world champion [video]").

~~~
pennaMan
They are trying to say that Tetris came out before he was born. Very poor
attempt at a sensationalist title.

~~~
notthemessiah
It would be like "24 year-old Garry Kasparov wins world championship of 1500
year-old game."

~~~
jkingsbery
"Golfer born centuries after game's invention wins tournament" would be
another great headline.

------
veli_joza
I remember some 15 years ago when I played few hours of tetris on fastest mode
to see if I would be able to learn it. At first the game would last 3 seconds,
but I managed to bump it up to some 10 seconds before becoming overwhelmed. It
was fun exercise of learning process where rules and winning metrics are well
defined.

That night while falling asleep, my mind was still playing tetris. I
visualized the game vividly and could actually play it in my mind. Only later
I learned this is actually called The Tetris Effect
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect)).

------
hmart
Chess is older than any chess world champion, older than the world as we know
maybe. This part of the title is an absurd argument.

~~~
cjCamel
I agree that it's daft! Not the title I submitted.

------
cabaalis
I watch Ecstasy of Order (which features among others Jonas Neubauer, who lost
in this case) at least once every 6 months. I'm glad to see they're keeping up
the pace with these championships.

------
ariwilson
I've been watching these events since the first one as Jonas is a good friend.
He's a fantastic person and now ambassador of Tetris. If you're interested, he
regularly streams his play and analysis at:

[https://m.twitch.tv/nubbinsgoody](https://m.twitch.tv/nubbinsgoody)

If you want to see an exciting documentary about how this all got started:

[https://youtu.be/TiO1nCFeWvk](https://youtu.be/TiO1nCFeWvk)

------
ArtWomb
Tetris never dies. I know a lot of people are pretty excited for the Tetsuya
Mizuguchi reboot _Tetris Effect_ which launches Nov 9 for PS4. Particularly VR
play, which seems to reliably induce out of body experiences ;)

The Tetris Effect And Our Boundaryless Digital Future

[https://www.wired.com/story/tetris-effect-tetsuya-
mizguchi-v...](https://www.wired.com/story/tetris-effect-tetsuya-mizguchi-
virtual-reality/)

------
jancsika
The real puzzle is why there are so fewer young people playing Tetris-- a
fairly recent game-- than, say, Chess-- which has been around for many
decades. (An impressive 100% of known Chess masters are younger than the
game.)

I'd venture to guess the graphics of Tetris already look outdated by today's
standards whereas the realism of Chess is much more visually impressive.

~~~
apetresc
I can't tell if you're serious. Chess is a two-player game with centuries of
theory behind it, tens of thousands of books, an incredibly competitive
tournament scene with an international rating system. Moreover, it's a great
spectator sport; watching chess helps you get better at chess.

Tetris, by comparison, is a single-player game (it has multiplayer analogues
but they're very artificial) with extremely shallow theory. It is more akin to
a puzzle than it is to a competitive game. Watching high-level tetris does
nothing to improve your own tetris skill.

~~~
yesenadam
_Watching high-level tetris does nothing to improve your own tetris skill._

Is that actually true? It's hard to believe. Surely you'd learn a lot about
good strategy and other aspects of the game.

 _Chess is...a great spectator sport_

Hmm yeah well...Watching someone think for 30 minutes about a move isn't that
thrilling. Not uncommonly, both players will be away from the board at the
same time. Most big tournaments seem to have hardly anyone actually going to
them now - the experience of watching online with expert commentators is so
much better. Even if you watch live in the room, you're looking at big screens
on the wall, not the actual board.

Having said that, chess is the only game/sport I follow these days, I love
watching tournaments and matches with commentary online, and analysis videos,
banter blitz (grandmaster plays the public online while speaking their
thoughts), chess lectures etc. I used to play a lot (it's extremely addictive)
but gave up recently - playing (and peoples' behaviour online) can be quite
disturbing, but watching is 100% enjoyable. I try to watch in Spanish when
possible to improve my Spanish at the same time!

------
ryen
Here's the trophy the short article alludes to but doesn't show:
[https://www.dailyesports.gg/classic-tetris-finals-joseph-
sae...](https://www.dailyesports.gg/classic-tetris-finals-joseph-
saelee-16-wins/)

------
klez
Any info on the hardware/software they use, rules and stuff like that?

Also, does anyone know of any good free software implementation of tetris?
(no, don't suggest emacs :P)

~~~
Rebelgecko
I believe they play on actual NES consoles, hooked up to CRT monitors. You can
use an original NES controller or a functionally identical replica. I think
they have modified ROMs with a hardcoded seed for the RNG, so that each player
gets the same pieces. It can be pretty cool to how oftentimes players start
out making identical moves, then slowly diverge.

------
failrate
I really liked the previous champion's sportsmanlike response to his defeat.

------
Jpoechill
Wow, I love this. Brings back all the memories

------
jordache
why is the age of the player vs the game any significance?

------
nejcpuska
Game of my childhood, besides PackMan. The saddest story - when the battery
died on my portable tetris device. :) Good old days! Congrats to the kid!

~~~
mproud
I knew a kid who had one of the original GameBoys. I also had a friend with a
GameGear. Those first and second-gen, fully-fledged portable console systems
churned through batteries so quickly!

