Since its release in 1989 by Nintendo, only computers have been able to beat Tetris. That’s because the only way to do so is to keep leveling up until the blocks are falling so fast that the game itself can’t keep up and freezes. It’s obviously very difficult for a human to play that fast, but a 13-year-old from Oklahoma just became the first known person to do so.
Willis Gibson, known as Blue Scuti online, posted a YouTube video of his feat. He got the game to freeze with an impressive score of 999999, at which point he proclaimed, “Oh my God! Yes! I’m going to pass out. I can’t feel my hands.” Gibson dedicated his win to his late father, Adam. He started playing the game two years ago and uses a newly popularized technique for manipulating the controller called “rolling.”
Vince Clemente, the president of the Classic Tetris World Championship, said of Gibson’s win: “It’s never been done by a human before. It’s basically something that everyone thought was impossible until a couple of years ago.”
