Tetris World Championships – Parting Thoughts

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Classic Tetris World Championship at the Downtown Independent Theater. Being an avid player of the game, I was psyched to go and ready to participate. A few members of the 120-crew including myself came and supported the cause. My friend Grasshopper, a rookie gamer by our standards, also came to enjoy the festivities. The event was well attended and in the end we all had a good time, especially if you hung out on the roof during the day during the qualifiers. But that’s not to say the event was without its flaws. It was a good first time attempt and its understandable that a few things were overlooked. The few suggestions below should tighten it up for next year and hopefully make it fairer to qualifying players.

The rules also needed to be set in a stone much earlier than they had. I recall the rules being changed everyday for the last three days leading up to the day of the event. For people that want to make it past the qualifiers, this can be a frustrating process because people need to alter their practice routines to fit the new changes.

The seeding of the top players also seemed unfair to most of the people paying to enter to the qualifying round. It’s not uncommon to have a few reserved seats but to have 5 out of 8 spots taken was not cool. That only left 3 open spots for the hundreds of players trying out. There should have been an extra quarterfinal round that had the top 8 qualifying players compete for a chance in the semifinals.

The format of the semifinals also left much to be desired. They had 8 players compete head-to-head but only 4 screens were shown at any given time. This left viewers in an awkward position as the competition heated up. More often that not, the screen switched players during the critical moments of near death leaving the audience clueless to their fate. I clearly remember Thor Aackerlund being of the verge of death when the screen decided to make the player swap. When it came time to revert back to him, he managed to dig himself out of hole with a near empty playing field. Like everyone else, I wanted to see the Tetris legend’s technique in action at its finest. The event staff should have only allowed the number of players to compete to be the same as the number of simultaneous screens that could be shown. In this case, two rounds of 4 players in semifinals would have been the best choice.

Lastly, it was presumptuous of the organizers to call the event a “world championship” since only one city was involved. Even though 1990 Nintendo World Championship only occurred in the United States, the event took place in a multitude of cities across the country. A more fitting name would be “SoCal Tetris Championship.”

The event turned out much better than I had expected but it was clear that it was not as organized as it should have been. I hope that the event planner at least take a few of these suggestions to heart as I believe it would make for a more enjoyable competition. I look forward to attending the championship next year and perhaps have more coverage around the country to make it a more genuine “world championship.”