Categories: Technology

A teenager from the USA became the first person to win Tetris.

Simple yet highly addictive, Tetris has been part of the cultural landscape for decades, and now an American teenager has conquered it (JACK GOOSE)

An American teenager has become the first person to win the classic computer game Tetris.forcing him to commit a game-ending failure, something that has only been achieved so far by artificial intelligence.

Willis Gibson, a 13-year-old gamer known as “blue scooty,” managed to reach the “screen of death” version of Nintendo’s famous puzzle game while other gamers followed his progress online.

“Oh my God!” Willis shouted repeatedly at the end of the more than 40-minute video he posted to YouTube this week.

A news anchor has been called out after downplaying the achievement of a 13-year-old who won Tetris, telling him to “go outside” and that winning the game “is not the goal of life.”pic.twitter.com/1GsnWJksP3

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) January 4, 2024

“I can’t feel my fingers” – he said, breathless.

That excitement contrasted with the game’s previous 35 minutes, during which the Oklahoma teen remained largely motionless, quickly moving his fingers across the controller.

“This has never been done by a human being before,” said Vince Clemente, president of the Classic Tetris World Championship, according to The New York Times. “Basically, this is something that just a couple of years ago everyone thought was impossible.”

Exciting game

The brainchild of a Soviet software engineer, Tetris is a simple but highly addictive game in which players must rotate and manipulate falling blocks of various shapes to connect them together and create solid lines inside a box.

Once a line (or two, three or four) is formed, it disappears, leaving more space and time for the next blocks to blend.

The pieces fall faster as the player progresses through the levels until they reach level 29, which has long been considered the end of the game and the point where the pieces move too fast for people to react.

For some time, gamers have known that there was a point where the code would fail and the game would stop, but only one other computer could reach it.

All until December 21, when Willis reached level 157 and replaced a piece that caused the block line to disappear and the game to freeze.

Tetris CEO Maya Rogers joined the celebration, telling popsci.com it was a worthy achievement ahead of the video game’s 40th anniversary in 2024.

“Congratulations to Blue scuti for achieving this remarkable achievement, a feat that defies all preconceived limitations of this legendary game,” he said in a statement.

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