In a surprising turn of events, 13-year-old Willis Gibson from Oklahoma has become the first person to beat the classic video game Tetris, 34 years after its release.
He achieved the impressive feat by reaching level 157 and causing the game to crash, capturing the moment on his YouTube channel.
The whole thing only took him 38 minutes, and at the end of it, he couldn't believe what had just happened. He said, "I'm going to pass out, I can't feel my fingers."
What makes Willis' accomplishment even more remarkable is that until just a few years ago, players believed it was only possible to play up to level 29. Tetris, created in 1984 by Soviet engineer Alexey Pajitnov, gained popularity after its debut on Nintendo's NES console in 1989.
The game has since become a classic and can now be played across various consoles and platforms, including mobile phones.
Previously, in 2010, professional competitive gamer Thor Aackerlund reached level 30 using a technique called hyper tapping, where players vibrate their fingers to move the controller faster than the in-game speed. This sparked a trend among gamers adopting hyper tapping and other techniques to push the limits of the game.
Until last month, only AI had managed to reach the elusive kill screen, a level that causes the game to crash. Willis' achievement has now rewritten the history of Tetris, proving that a human player can indeed conquer this iconic game.
Willis, who goes by the name Blue Scuti on YouTube, has been playing Tetris since he was 11 and has participated in several gaming tournaments. Expressing his disbelief, he wrote on his YouTube channel, "When I started playing this game, I never expected to ever crash the game or beat it."
Meanwhile, other gamers are now attempting to surpass the teenager's records, with many documenting their endeavors on social media and video streaming platforms.
