A 13-year-old American has made history by being the first person to conquer Tetris, propelling the classic Nintendo video game, which has been around for more than three decades, into a challenging "kill screen."
Willis Gibson, known as the streamer Blue Scuti, exclaimed, "Please crash," as he skillfully arranged the puzzle pieces descending down the screen.
Moments later, his wish came true as the game froze, prompting repeated expressions of "Oh my God!" in a video uploaded to YouTube on Jan. 2.
Gibson set world records for the overall score, level achieved and the total number of lines, according to 404 Media.
"This is unbelievable," said Vince Clemente, CEO of the Classic Tetris World Championship, in remarks to Reuters. "Developers didn't think anyone would ever make it that far, and now the game has officially been beaten by a human being."
Previously, only an artificial intelligence computer program had defeated Tetris, Clemente added.
Willis employs a "rolling" controller technique popularized in 2021 that allows a player to manipulate the directional pad, or D-pad, at least 20 times per second to move the blocks – far more than the previously popular "hyper-tapping" method, as noted by 404 Media.
Tetris, first released in 1984 and an immediate worldwide sensation, challenges players to rotate and conjoin seven different falling block shapes.
Created by Alexey Pajitnov at the Moscow Academy of Science during the Cold War's height and developed into a business by gaming entrepreneur Henk Rogers, Tetris has demonstrated remarkable staying power, spanning generations.
It remains the best-selling video game of all time, with 520 million copies sold, according to The Tetris Company.
