Classic Tetris World Championship 2022 - 4

It is Friday October 14, the official start of the Classic Tetris World Championships. On paper, the schedule for the day seems simple enough.

The Portland Retro Gaming Expo opens at 12 PM
There are 60 qualifying stations, with 4 slots per station at 12:30 PM, 2:45 PM, 5:00 PM, and 7:15 PM. Each qualifying slot is 2 hours.

Walking through Hall E, workers for the Portland Retro Gaming Expo were scrambling to get the Arcade section ready before the start of the Expo.

Over by the CTWC section, staff were also busy conducting their last minute checks.

AMJ, doing double duty as part of the team in charge of the audiovisual gear and competing, making adjustments to the camera for the Main Stage.

Trey Harrison (right), one of the organizers of CTWC, and Vandy (left), organizer of Classic Tetris Monthly, on Stage 2 commentator station. Vandy would spend most of his time commentating on Stage 2.

Chris Foryst, the CTWC head judge who flew in from Poland, was in charge of tournament protocols and overall brackets. Throughout the weekend, he would receive score updates from matches and update the bracket and overall leaderboard.

Ro (left) and Steve Deluca (right) putting the last minute touches on the merchandise section. Steve is the owner of TotalRadNES and creator of the Goofyfoot mod, which switches the directional pad from the left to the right, for easier DAS and rolling play.

Competitors were arriving in a slow but steady pace, filling up Hall E even though the Expo wasn't officially open to the public. But despite this being a competition, there wasn't a competitive atmosphere. This was more akin to a family reunion and not one of those reunions where you try to hide from everyone. This was a family reunion where you had that awesome cousin that you hadn't seen in a while . . . Except everyone was that awesome cousin.

It's hard to describe but the underlying atmosphere was one of gratitude. Given the COVID situation, some of the CTWC veterans hadn't seen each other since 2019 or earlier. And the newer community members who joined during COVID finally had the chance to come to CTWC, one of, if not the premier Tetris event of the year (similar to the Super Bowl for American football), and meet people who they had been playing online with for years.

For one joyous weekend, the community was finally together again.

Reunions and hugs aplenty throughout the weekend.

Jakub (left) and Peyton (middle) getting their picture taken with Kingsman (right). Kingsman is the host of Tetris Friendlies, a community he created during the pandemic to help people practice Tetris in a non-competitive environment.

Vince Clemente (left), James Chen (centre) and Chris Tang (right) posing for a picture. Chris has commentated every CTWC. James is a more recent addition, having commentated CTWC since 2017.

Reid (left) posing with Steve Deluca (right) and the Shredder, a NES controller welded to a wooden guitar.

A silent moment before the tournament starts.

Casual warm-up play at the qualifying stations before the start of the qualification round.

A group of competitors gathering around Dog (lower left corner), winner of CTWC 2020 and 2021. After CTWC 2021, Dog had transitioned to rolling. As soon as he sat down, all eyes were on him.

Herding competitors to confirm attendance and get their photos taken for the annual class photo.

Barrett, one of the CTWC volunteers who came up from California, hamming it up at the photo station.

DanV, a competitor from the United Kingdom . . . Looking goooood.

"What's the most disgusting thing you've done?" If there was any one incident that showcased the demographic shift to younger competitors in CTWC (and made me feel my age), it was Sodium asking and recording people's response to that question.

Qualifiers

The rules for the qualifying round:

Score as many max-outs (i.e. a point max of 999, 999) as you can in a 2 hour period. If you have the same amount of maxouts as another competitor, then the tie will be broken by comparing the highest non-maxout score, otherwise known as a kicker. The competitor with the higher kicker ranks higher.
Points scored in excess of a million points will not count.
When the 2 hour period ends, you are allowed to finish whatever game is in progress.

The top 48 competitors would be seeded into Gold Bracket. Seeds 49 - 80 would be seeded into Silver Bracket.

Easy peasy . . . right?

Of course not, but if anyone could make it look easy, it would be the first group of 4 players called up to the Main Stage: Dog, PixelAndy, Huff and Marq.

Dog was the defending CTWC champion, having won the 2020 and 2021 online editions.

PixelAndy, while perhaps being overshadowed as Dog's brother, had his own share of accomplishments including placing 2nd in CTWC 2020 and placing 1st consistently in the CTM monthly tournaments leading up to CTWC 2022. In particular, PixelAndy won a match in the May 2022 CTM that broke several world records including the world record for highest combined score in a single game, highest losing score (1.5 million), and highest winning score (2.1 million).

Huff, as one of the original rollers, was perhaps the competitor with the most experience in the technique. In Game 4 of the CTWC 2021 semi-finals against Joseph Saelee, Huff managed to get to an astounding Level 40. He went on to defeat Joseph and would place 2nd in CTWC 2021, losing to Dog.

And finally, Marq, while not a roller, was a stalwart in the European scene, having organized CTWC DAS, a tournament dedicated solely to the DAS playstyle. In addition, his technical skills were stellar, being the first person to complete 19-5 in Tetris's B-type mode, which is an additional Tetris mode where the objective is to clear 25 lines at a selected Level (i.e. speed) with a randomly generated Tetris stack. At Level 19-5, the game generates a stack with a height of 12 lines with a descent speed of Level 19. At this level, pieces drop 2 rows with every frame.

This impressive array of talent would present a preliminary answer to a key question coming into the tournament. With another year of practice and maturation, how would rolling impact the meta in October 2022?

Marq being his charming self as he sits down at the Main Stage for qualification.

Dog (right) and PixelAndy (left), brothers separated by two years of age, getting ready for qualification at the Main Stage. Note that PixelAndy is wearing a glove to reduce friction, a usual practice for most rollers.

Huff (right) calling for a judge to record the score for his latest game. One of the judge's functions is to record the score by taking a picture and confirming the score is acceptable with the player.

In two hours, the four players had a combined total of 39 max-outs.

Dog scored 13 max-outs and would have scored a 14th if it wasn't for a 35 long piece drought. PixelAndy had a perfect session with no kicker with 13 straight max-outs. Huff scored 11 max-outs. Marq scored 2 max-outs.

Three rollers had a total of 37 max-outs in 2 hours. Rolling was here to stay.

For those who want to watch the action:

And that was just the qualifying action for the four stations on the the Main Stage. Even though a DJ was playing classic video game tunes, with a total of 60 stations in the hall, the ever familiar Tetris melody and the sounds of lines being cleared from the stack were all-enveloping.

Stage 2 with Sodium (right, close foreground) and Myles (center) on the right and Vandy (left) on commentator during qualifying round. Myles's controller had broken on the way to CTWC. He would spend most of his time fixing and modifying his controller.

A view of the Main Stage and Stage 2 next to each other.

Qualifying action didn't occur just at the two front stages. There were stations all throughout the space. This was towards the back of the venue, with Stage 3 in the background.

After competing in Qualifiers, Marq was a judge during subsequent qualifiers. If it's not obvious, he's a bit of a joker.

Bidwell, a CTWC commentator, competing at qualifiers. He would commentate Silver Bracket later on in the weekend.

A different perspective of Bidwell competing at qualifiers.

The cards used to record scores that are given to Chris Foryst to update the leaderboards and brackets.

Back at the Main Stage, the action was heating up once again with another set of fan-favourites.

One of those fan-favourites was Sharky, well-known in the Classic Tetris community as the organizer of the ongoing Classic Tetris Gauntlet and as a commentator of Classic Tetris games since 2019.

One hour in, and Sharky was still looking for his first max-out. His efforts were continually stymied and throughout the qualifier, Sharky repeatedly reset his NES console. With his DAS playstyle, once the stack reached a certain height, it was an insurmountable obstacle at high Levels and it wasn't worth it to continue playing. And with rollers like Fractal and Eric on stage with him with their (at the moment) 6 max-outs, he was feeling discouraged. Despite being an accomplished Tetris player, he wasn't in Portland this weekend to compete. He was here to commentate.

But just outside of his peripheral vision, he could hear words coming from Chris Tang, one of the commentators, saying "Keep in mind, Sharky plays DAS. To play DAS at a high level is absolutely commendable."

The shades came off and Sharky dug deep inside of him.

As a newbie to the Classic Tetris world, listening to Sharky commentate is an exercise in simplicity and expressiveness. There is a natural tempo to how he enunciates; an ebb and flow that only helps the listener understand the overall story he is trying to convey about the game, whether it be the grandiosity of a brilliant play or the nuances in a competitor's mindset.

But if there is one thing that I've gleamed from my time with Sharky, it is that there is a hunger inside of him . . . A hunger to prove himself to the world. And this hunger is always there.

He absolutely needed this max-out.

And when it was finally within his grasp, there was none of his commentator's grace. Instead, that hunger was on full display. His facial muscles twitched, his eyes opened so wide you could get lost in them, he bared his teeth . . . and finally, he jumped out of his chair and yelled out . . .

"LET'S FRIGGIN GO!"

And the crowd roared right back at him.

Alex T was one of a few competitors to use their foot to support the NES controller at CTWC 2022

Realization from the judge that Alex T is going to mullen, which is to continue playing past 999,999 points even though the rules state that the recorded score will only be 999,999. Mullening is only legal in qualifiers and while it might seem pointless, offers one of the only chances to practice at higher speeds during the tournament.

Fractal is amazingly expressive and wears his heart on his sleeve. Above, the many faces of Fractal as he gets his 14th max-out at the very end of his qualifier.

A hug shared between Fractal and Eric as they finish their qualifying round with an amazing 14 max-outs each. In Fractal's hand is his stuffed penguin.

Post-qualifier interview:

James Chen (right): Was it a goal to get above 14 . . . to get above where Andy and Dog were?

Eric (second from right): . . . I went into this without any goals. So, I haven't practiced at all in a week. That's absolutely true by the way.

James Chen : I mean obviously 14 max-outs in the qualifying record is a record now right? How does it feel now to be the two players to be the only two players to hold that record?

Fractal (second from left): It will last for at least an hour.

For those who want to see the action:

Meet Lok, the social media manager for CTM and an absolute whirlwind. She was always on the move and seemingly knew everyone. She was armed with 300 sheets of Instax film (in part, thanks to Chris Higgins) with the goal of getting a signed picture of every competitor.

But even Lok's energy was flagging as we approached the last qualifiers of the day.

Lok was far from the only person grabbing signatures. Above, Eunha was collecting everyone's signature on the 2022 edition of the CTWC poster, as a keepsake of the weekend. She does this for every CTWC event she attends.

A very excited fan getting the autograph of Sharky, her proclaimed favourite commentator and Tetris streamer. She was probably one of, if not the, most animated fan in the audience during the weekend.

While most people were signing NES cartridges or pictures, AVGeek brought along a CRT chassis for his autographs.

A closer look at AVGeek's CRT chassis and his autographs, in all of its glory

With the last qualifiers for the day underway, overall energy levels were low and the crowd was thinning out. Pretty much all of the players in this set had been on-site all day, either spectating or volunteering as CTWC staff.

Birb (left) and Bidwell (right) subbing in for commentating duties for the last qualifier at 7:15PM.

Chris Foryst, psyching himself up, by hitting himself twice on the shoulders before letting out a guttural yell, which was soon drowned out by the ambient noise of other video games from the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. He did not qualify with a score of 615961, which speaks to the community's rapid growth.

Nevenator taking a victory lap after scoring a max-out. He only started to play Tetris in May 2020, after having been inspired by the 2018 CTWC Grand Finals. He achieved his first max-out in October 2020 and qualified in 14th place in CTWC 2021. The short period to attain their first max-out is typical of the newer generation. To get to CTWC from his home state of Utah, he took on a job to pay for the flights for himself and his father.

Peyton about to spike their controller at the end of their qualifier. At the time of CTWC 2022, they had bought gear with their money in an attempt to launch a Classic Tetris community in Northern NY and Pittsburgh.

The leaderboard at the end of the day. Note that to enter the Gold Bracket, one maxout was needed with a kicker of 850,000. Two competitors had managed perfect sessions, meaning that they had no kickers, only max-outs.

Day 1 done. Only 2 more days left.

I went back to the hotel utterly exhausted.

Classic Tetris World Championship 2022 - 4 - The First Day, Qualifiers

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