Teenager Becomes First Player to ‘Beat’ Tetris
For the first time in history, a Tetris player has caused the game to crash, effectively ‘beating’ it by reaching a high enough score that stops the game from being able to load in blocks fast enough. This feat was accomplished by 13-year-old Willis Gibson, who has risen in fame since he participated in a multitude of national and international tournaments in 2023- even placing third at the Classic Tetris World Championships last year. However, his greatest accomplishment came when he went further than anyone thought was possible as he reached the true kill screen of the game.
In Tetris, once a player reaches level 29, this is known as the ‘kill screen’. Whilst players have reached level 40 and beyond before, 29 is still considered the end of the game simply due to how quickly the blocks fall- so much so that even the technique of tapping the back of the controller (known as rolling) wasn’t enough to progress easily. However, in a 38 minute video, Willis has been the first human that has surpassed what many thought was possible by crashing the game- which was a feat believed to be limited to super-fast AI programmes.
Before 2020, the technique known as ‘hypertapping’ was the most popular way to reach beyond level 29. This involved tapping the controller buttons at superhuman speeds. However, this still wasn’t fast enough to reach beyond level 38. That’s where the technique that Willis used comes into the picture. In 2020, the player known as ‘Cheez’ utilized a new ‘rolling’ technique, which involved tapping the bottom of the controller into your fingers to achieve even faster speeds. This allowed players to smash previous records, with records consistently reaching into the 40s, 50s and even getting to level 95 back in 2022.
However, even with these scores, there was still a long way until anyone could push the game to crash. Since there were so many factors that could cause the game to cease functioning, it was almost impossible to tell just how to reach the sought-after true kill screen. However, just a few days ago, Willis (better known by the screen name Blue Scutti) reached level 157 and became the first player in history to beat the game that many believed to be unbeatable. This has, understandably, caused the Tetris community to celebrate this success but has caused others to see this as a challenge and an opportunity. The true kill screen was reached, but could it be optimized and achieved quicker than Blue Scutti’s 38-minute time? Keep an eye on the community in the next few months, as this is sure to be an exciting time for any Tetris fan.
