13-Year-Old Gamer Becomes The First Person Ever To Beat Tetris
Language
Reading Level
Listen to Article
Alignment
The classic version of Tetris for Nintendo, released in 1985, has achieved remarkable success, with over 520 million copies sold worldwide. The game's objective is to stop the accumulation of falling geometric shapes by rotating and placing them into straight lines. In theory, the game can go on forever since there is no end screen. However, the accelerating pace of the falling blocks causes players to make mistakes, and the game always wins.
But 35 years after its release, 13-year-old Willis Gibson has proven that it is possible to beat Tetris. On December 21, 2023, Gibson advanced so far in the game that he "broke" it. At level 157, Tetris just gave up and froze. Even more impressive, it took the young gamer, who goes by the name "Blue Scuti," just 38 minutes to achieve the feat. Before this, Tetris had only lost to computer AI programs.
"What happens is you get so far that the programmers that made the game, they never expected you to make it that far. And so the game starts breaking down, and eventually, it just stops," Gibson explained.
The 13-year-old's victory even caught the attention of the game's maker. "Congratulations to 'Blue Scuti' for achieving this extraordinary accomplishment, a feat that defies all preconceived limits of this legendary game," Tetris CEO Maya Rogers said in a statement.
Gibson began playing Tetris at age 11 and swiftly became a top competitive player. In October 2023, the young prodigy placed third in the Classic Tetris World Championship. While the latest win is one for the record books, the 13-year-old is not resting on his laurels. He is busy practicing for his next tournament.
Resources: theguardian.com, NPR.org, 404media.com
Get the Workbook for this article!
Workbook contains: Article, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking Questions, Vocabulary in Context (+ answers), Multiple Choice Quiz (+ answers), Parts of Speech Quiz (+ answers), Vocabulary Game (+ answers)Cite Article
Learn Keywords in this Article
147 Comments
- gujiberekojy10 monthsWow it'd crazy that trillions of professionals have lost and yet he won and he is only 13 wow
- okay5610 monthsI wish I was him...
- coltona1410 monthsis crazy to see this in a game that is so old, its even crazier to think he is the first person to ever beat it. he said he will be doing super mario bros next and i will be watching it lol.
- viditdacheeseit10 monthswhoa that is crazy!!!
- soccer_fan10 monthsWow! I've tried like 5000 times and never ever beaten it! Great job!
- creina680510 monthsBro a teenager beating tetris is crazy
- deku05161210 monthshe will become history (i great gamer)
- jaeinroyce10 monthsUmmm I want to play like that!! [I am a bad gamer]
- techfashion031510 monthsThat actually is really impressive because I tried playi Teri’s once and failed miserably! 😂 Good for him! 🏆
- deku05161210 monthshe siad that he practiced in the vid so you could do it to but on another game
- stitchfan123410 monthsThat is so sick !!!!!