Teen Defeats Tetris
David “aGameScout” Macdonald (YouTube: @aGameScout”)
Thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson, seen here after coming in third at the 2023 Classic Tetris World Championship, is the first person who ever made it to the end of the game.
Tetris is one of those video games that’s always been impossible to beat—until now. Thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson recently became the first person to reach what’s basically the end of a game of Tetris.
There’s no actual end to Tetris. The game involves manipulating shapes created from seven different configurations of four blocks so that they complete rows in a grid on screen. Each row disappears when it’s completed. If a player doesn’t complete enough rows, the blocks reach the top of the screen, and the game is over. The blocks fall faster and faster until the player can’t keep up. When developers designed Tetris, they figured it would beat everyone. The game isn’t made to be defeated.
David “aGameScout” Macdonald (YouTube: @aGameScout”)
Gibson is a seasoned Tetris competitor. Despite reaching the end of Tetris, he’ll continue to take part in competitions.
But experienced Tetris players know what happens when the game reaches its limits—a “kill screen” appears. In the past, only artificial intelligence has been able to reach that screen.
“When you do make it that far, the game can’t handle it, and it just crashes,” Gibson told NBC News.
That’s what happened to Gibson. The Oklahoma teen, who has been playing Tetris since he was 11 and participates in Tetris tournaments, was playing the original Nintendo version of the game at home when he reached the kill screen. Gibson had advanced far enough that the software had stopped registering increases to his score—which was stuck at 999,999.
The entire game was recorded on video, including the dramatic conclusion.
“Please, crash!” Gibson muttered to himself, just before the kill screen appeared. When the game stopped, he gasped and grasped his head in both hands, knowing what he had accomplished.
Even though he beat Tetris, Gibson’s not ready to walk away just yet. He told NBC News that he loves to participate in tournaments and plans to keep doing so.
