Willis Gibson’s Tetris screenshot/From aGameScout/Youtube
2024.01.04 Thu posted at 11:39 JST
(CNN) A 13-year-old boy from Oklahoma has apparently finally mastered the once-difficult game “Tetris.”
Willis Gibson (13) reached level 157 in Tetris. Gibson is believed to be the first human player to reach this level in the game, which has been around 40 years since its release.
Gibson, who crashed Tetris, said in a video posted on YouTube on the 2nd, “I’m about to pass out. I can’t feel my fingers.” The video was accompanied by the caption, “When I started playing this game, I had no idea that I could crash it, that I could conquer it.”
Tetris was created in 1984 by Soviet engineer Alexei Pajitnov and became popular on Nintendo’s game console. According to Guinness World Records, more than 200 official versions of Tetris have been released for various gaming consoles and terminals.
How to play is simple. Manipulate blocks of various shapes that fall from above, combine them, and arrange them in a horizontal line. The higher the level, the faster the blocks fall. Experts say the reason it has remained popular for decades is its simplicity.
Until 2011, level 29 was considered the highest level a player could reach.
However, once the level 29 barrier was broken, players began to aim for even higher levels through competitions such as the Tetris World Championship, and techniques such as “hyper tapping” and “rolling” were developed.
Gibson placed third at the 2023 World Championships. Gibson is the first human to break the record, but the AI that plays Tetris reached level 236 in 2021 by manipulating the game’s settings.
