Willis Gibson, a 13-year-old from Oklahoma, has become the first human being to beat Tetris. The teenager managed to beat the game in just 38 minutes, reaching level 157 and accumulating a total of 999,999 points.
The young man who, at the time, was livestreaming himself playing video game, could not contain his excitement and his reaction went viral. The video was shared by the official Tetris account to commemorate the feat.
As The New York Times explained, Gibson, who plays under the pseudonym Blue Scuti, trains for about 20 hours a week and never thought he would be able to accomplish a feat that only artificial intelligence and some bots could emulate: "When I started playing this game, I never expected the game to crash or be beaten. I am extremely excited. It's easy to start but hard to master," Gibson explained.
In addition, the young man detailed that he played the video game created in 1984 on a cathode ray tube television set and dedicated the feat to his recently deceased father, Adam, who died last month.
Tetris experts recognize Willis Gibson's achievement
Gibson's record was lauded by Vince Clemente, president of the World Classic Tetris Championship. He acknowledged to The New York Times that what the 13-year-old had accomplished was considered "impossible": "It’s never been done by a human before. It’s basically something that everyone thought was impossible until a couple of years ago," Clemente said.
Maya Rogers, CEO of Tetris also congratulated Willis Gibson. In statements reported by the AP, the board called Blue Scuti's feat a "monumental achievement": "Congratulations to ‘blue scuti’ for achieving this extraordinary accomplishment, a feat that defies all preconceived limits of this legendary game," the CEO said.
