13-year-old boy becomes first person to 'beat' Tetris

04.01.2024 - 18:30 / eurogamer.net / Sky News / Nintendo

They said it couldn't be done, but to the nay-sayers let me tell you this — Tetris has finally been «beaten».

In a world first, 13-year-old Willis «Blue Scuti» Gibson — who is a competitive Tetris player — has managed to get the decades old falling block game to reveal its «kill screen». While not your traditional end of game, with credits or even game over message, this screen essentially sees Tetris crash. This is beating Tetris, a once thought impossible feat.

The delight shown by the young player, who was born over two decades after the game actually released, as the screen freezes is palpable. «Oh my god,» Gibson repeats. «I'm going to pass out, I can't feel my fingers.»

It took Gibson 38 minutes to complete the game, where he reached an impressive level 157 and a score of 999999 (the numbers don't go any higher).

«When I started playing this game I never expected to ever crash the game, or beat it,» he wrote on his YouTube channel. Here, he also said this run also set world records for Tetris' «Overall Score, Level, Lines, and 19 Score».

You can watch his achievements in action via the video below.

This Tetris feat has been celebrated across the media, with president of the Classic Tetris World Championship Vince Celemnte telling NYT: «It's basically something that everyone thought was impossible until a couple of years ago.»

In a sad state of affairs, however, Gibson's achievement has been met by scrutiny from one Sky news anchor. Following a report on this new record, the presenter looked pointedly at the screen informing Gibson to «step away from the screen» and «go outside» to get some fresh air.

«Beating Tetris is not a life goal,» she seemed to mock. All the while, news regarding 16-year-old Darts player Luke Littler panned across the bottom of the screen, with the young player's loss last night during the World Championship final painted in a much more glowing light.

Thankfully, the gaming community has rallied round Gibson, and shared their support for the record breaker.

Head of comms at the UK's games industry trade body UKIE, Bhavina Bharkhada remarked had Gibson been a chess champion, we would «all be celebrating».

Rare's Becky Frost also replied to a post sharing the news clip in question, stating: "'Beating Tetris is not a life goal' ...yeah, for YOU, Sandra. How many world records had YOU set at 13 years old? What a small-minded, smug & horrible way to belittle this kid's achievement. As A MoTheR I'd be super fucking proud. This took skill & determination, brilliant job!"

Meanwhile, YRS TRULY junior campaign manager Imogen Calypso Mellor called the presenter's behaviour «embarrassing».

«Imagine, doing something so impressive it's deemed worthy of being on Sky News, only