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“Didn’t Think There Was An End”: Teen, 13, Becomes The First Person To Complete Tetris
A 13-year-old prodigy made history by being the first person to beat the 1988 Tetris video game for Nintendo during a live stream, reaching level 157 in just 38 minutes.
Willis Gibson, from Oklahoma, USA, was reportedly live streaming while playing last month when he achieved a “True Killerscreen” in less than 40 minutes.
The results ended with the game’s blocks falling at a fast pace that forced the game to crash, an achievement only ever accomplished previously by artificial intelligence.
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A 13-year-old prodigy made history by being the first person to beat the 1988 Tetris video game
Image credits: aGameScout
Image credits: Blue Scuti
Gamers have reportedly long believed level 30 was the screen killer after Thor Aackerlund performed a “hypertapping” method in 2010, which saw him vibrating his fingers on the controller to move faster in the game, as per the Daily Mail.
Nevertheless, Willis, whose gaming name is Blue Scuti, broke the record, reportedly reaching level 157 before seeing the game implode on screen.
Willis Gibson was reportedly live streaming while playing last month when he achieved a “True Killerscreen”
Image credits: aGameScout
Image credits: aGameScout
As he was playing Tetris during a live stream on his YouTube channel, the young gamer stacked the blocks on top of each other as they continued to pick up speed as they fell.
“Oh, I missed it,” Willis said after misplacing a block, but that fear of defeat quickly changed when he recovered from the mishap. He then said, “Oh my God” as he observed the blocks falling into place, the British tabloid reported.
Willis continued by scoring another line, and the game froze. “Oh my God! Yes! I’m going to pass out,” he said upon realizing he had crashed the game. “I can’t feel my hands,” he exclaimed.
The teen boy has been playing Tetris since he was 11, reportedly practicing three to five hours daily
Image credits: aGameScout
The teen boy has been playing Tetris since he was 11, reportedly practicing three to five hours daily. He has gone on to compete several times in gaming tournaments, with one in October, where he placed third.
Willis told the Stillwater News Press: “I came into the tournament hoping to get top 16, and I overshot it. I was mainly excited to play against some of the players I knew from online.”
In another interview with streamer ITZsharky1, Willis revealed he had come close to crashing the game in previous plays but could never get there.
You can watch Willis’ live stream below:
Dedicating his successful game to his dad, Adam Gibson, who died in December, Willis said: “My biggest struggle was when the nerves started kicking in after 30 minutes of play.”
Tetris is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer.
In Tetris, players complete lines by moving differently shaped pieces called tetrominoes, which descend onto the playing field.
The completed lines disappear and grant the player points, and the player can proceed to fill the vacated spaces.
The game ends when the uncleared lines reach the top of the playing field. The longer the player can delay this outcome, the higher their score will be.
Willis’ incredible achievement inspired people to get back into the retro videogame
What do you think ?
JayWantsACat 11 months ago (edited)
A quick explanation based on what I know about all this: there are versions of Tetris, such as the Gameboy and PSP versions, that can be completed. Thus "beaten" and what the comments in the article are apparently referring to when they say it's been "beaten". That isn't what happened here. This kid beat the 1988 Nintendo version of the game which has no actually ending. This version of the game cannot be completed. He "beat" the game by playing it until it froze/crashed because it wasn't really meant to get as far as this kid did. THIS has never been done by a person, or at least recorded/documented. We only know what would happen because only AI was able to achieve this feat. He's the first person. It's really cool and a neat accomplishment for anyone, let alone a 13 year old kid.
BatPhace 11 months ago
Why can't people just celebrate with this kid? He did something remarkable at 13, pretty cool. I couldn't get past level 10 on any version of Tetris and it used to make me want to throw my Gameboy lol
INGI 11 months ago
They can! It sure helps though, when the writer creates a non-misleading headline. My initial response was... I beat Tetris a number of times in the late 80s. But JayWantsACat explained, and it makes sense. And I'm certainly impressed by and thrilled for this kid!!!
Load More Replies...
Mat Hall 11 months ago
"Gamers have reportedly long believed level 30 was the screen killer" This is what happens when you just read a Daily Mail article without doing additional research. Level 30 being "the end" hasn't been a thing for a while now - it was as far as you could get before the hypertapping and rolling techniques were developed, but it was then followed by the glitches "charcoal" colour scheme, but once that was beaten it was just an endurance test until it was discovered that there was a point beyond which the game is liable to crash, so the challenge now is to either crash it at the first possible time or to avoid the crashes for as long as possible. Also, this is not the "original" Tetris game, it's the NES version - there were multiple official and unofficial versions released prior to this one.
JayWantsACat 11 months ago (edited)
A quick explanation based on what I know about all this: there are versions of Tetris, such as the Gameboy and PSP versions, that can be completed. Thus "beaten" and what the comments in the article are apparently referring to when they say it's been "beaten". That isn't what happened here. This kid beat the 1988 Nintendo version of the game which has no actually ending. This version of the game cannot be completed. He "beat" the game by playing it until it froze/crashed because it wasn't really meant to get as far as this kid did. THIS has never been done by a person, or at least recorded/documented. We only know what would happen because only AI was able to achieve this feat. He's the first person. It's really cool and a neat accomplishment for anyone, let alone a 13 year old kid.
BatPhace 11 months ago
Why can't people just celebrate with this kid? He did something remarkable at 13, pretty cool. I couldn't get past level 10 on any version of Tetris and it used to make me want to throw my Gameboy lol
INGI 11 months ago
They can! It sure helps though, when the writer creates a non-misleading headline. My initial response was... I beat Tetris a number of times in the late 80s. But JayWantsACat explained, and it makes sense. And I'm certainly impressed by and thrilled for this kid!!!
Load More Replies... Mat Hall 11 months ago
"Gamers have reportedly long believed level 30 was the screen killer" This is what happens when you just read a Daily Mail article without doing additional research. Level 30 being "the end" hasn't been a thing for a while now - it was as far as you could get before the hypertapping and rolling techniques were developed, but it was then followed by the glitches "charcoal" colour scheme, but once that was beaten it was just an endurance test until it was discovered that there was a point beyond which the game is liable to crash, so the challenge now is to either crash it at the first possible time or to avoid the crashes for as long as possible. Also, this is not the "original" Tetris game, it's the NES version - there were multiple official and unofficial versions released prior to this one.
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