
Ms. Cox purchased a RetroN, a version of a Nintendo console, and an old cathode-ray tube television for her son from a pawnshop. Her son, Willis, plays about 20 hours of Tetris each week. Despite this, Ms. Cox, a high school math teacher, is okay with it as he does other activities as well. Willis is one of the top Tetris players in the country and is thought to be the first to beat the game on the original hardware. According to Vince Clemente, the president of the Classic Tetris World Championship, this was believed to be impossible until a couple of years ago. In competitive Tetris, the objective is typically to outscore opponents rather than outlast them, but “trying for the crash” is a different approach that focuses on survival. Willis’s main strategy is to play as safely as possible. However, according to David Macdonald, a video game content creator, and competitive Tetris player, top players have started using the “rolling technique,” a tapping method that has changed what is possible in competitive Tetris.