I first played Tetris in the late 90s when I got my first Game Boy. I fell foul of the Tetris effect and it took a couple of days to recover. But that goes to show how addictive the game is. And now there’s a world championship tournament for it!
The Classic Tetris World Championship is held in Portland, Oregon and hosted by the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. It started in 2010 in Los Angeles, but moved to Portland two years later. The version played is the NES version from 1989 on actual CRT screens (talk about retro technology!).
You’ve seen Rafa Nadal’s dominance on clay. Well, Jonas Neubauer is the Rafa Nadal of Tetris. In the seven tournaments up to 2016’s final, Jonas has reached every single one. What’s more, he’s only lost one (as of 2016’s final), and that came in 2014 to Harry Hong.
In 2016, he fought with first-time entrant Jeff Moore who became a hilarious meme. The result was inevitable but Jeff gave it a good shot; a remarkable achievement for a debut appearance.
The final was oddly therapeutic, addictive, and funny (the commentary is anyway). You can stream it below.
