THUNDER BAY — The founder of Tetris Canada believes Willis Gibson beating Tetris will help grow the game in Canada.
Sean Brady, who lives in Thunder Bay, said he was amazed watching Gibson, a 13-year-old from Oklahoma, beat Tetris on the original Nintendo.
Gibson made it to Level 157 on Dec. 21 with a total score of 999,999. He was ecstatic and who could blame him – since he was the first person to beat the game since it was released in the 1980s.
“In the Tetris community, we knew that computers could do it, but we never really expected that a person would be able to actually achieve this,” Brady said.
“He basically got to the stage of the game where there is no more memory. There's not enough memory for the game to continue being played and then it crashes.”
At this point Gibson triggered a kill screen, something gamers consider a victory.
Brady said it’s great to know that Tetris can be beat, because “the game would always win in the end.”
He sees this monumental moment as a victory for more than just Gibson, but also for Tetris Canada, which Brady formed a few years ago after playing the video game throughout his life.
“I'm very hopeful that it will help grow the community in Canada, because we're all spread out,” he said.
“It's a community we're trying to grow to inspire younger players, older players, people that grew up with the game to get into it.”
Brady said more young people have gotten into Tetris since 2019, when 16-year-old Joseph Saelee beat seven-time world champion Jonas Neubauer.
“Since then, there's been an influx in the younger generation learning the game and getting into it,” he said.
Alexey Pajitnov, who was a Soviet software engineer, created Tetris in 1985. He came up with the name by combining tetra, which means four, with his favourite sport, tennis.
Brady said he can spend hours playing Tetris – it’s often even therapeutic.
“I kind of get into this zone where I'm not even thinking about the game, I’m just thinking about funny memories or past things that happened when I was a kid.
“It's almost like a meditative state. It's so satisfying when you clear a line. It's a little hit of dopamine and that's what keeps us going, I guess.”
Tetris Canada began with in-person tournaments, but they recently moved online because the logistics were a challenge to coordinate with roughly 40 members spread across Canada.
“The end goal is we would like to do more in-person tournaments,” Brady said.
Anyone looking for information about Tetris Canada can contact Brady through his Twitch account under the name DarthDreadz.
