Boy Wonder: Stillwater teen places third in Classic Tetris World Championship

Nov. 16—An 11-year-old Willis Gibson was surfing the web for something to keep him entertained. That's the day he started playing Tetris, a game that's changed his way of life ever since.

"It just caught my attention, and that's sort of how I got into it," Gibson said. "It's mainly a hobby for me."

"A hobby that won you some stuff," his mom, Karin Cox, chimed in with a laugh.

Willis, now 13, placed third overall at the Classic Tetris World Championship in October, winning $1,500 in a prize pool. He was the youngest competitor, beating out hundreds of players attempting to qualify for the tournament itself.

"I came into the tournament hoping to get top 16, and I overshot it," Willis said. "I was mainly excited to play against some of the players I knew from online."

Tetris is the third best-selling video game of all time. In 2024, the intellectual property will celebrate 40 years, and it's continued to be loved by people of all ages and cultures across the globe.

In 1984, computer programmer Alexey Pajitnov, inspired by his favorite puzzle board game — Pentominos — created the electronic game.

The game allows players to arrange puzzle pieces in real time as they fall from the top of the playing field. Pajitnov called his game "Tetris" — a combination of "tetra," (a Greek word meaning "four") and "tennis" (his favorite sport).

The game consists of stacking squares called minos. Each "mino" comes in fours cubes called tetriminos. Players stack them in multiple ways to make rows of squares as they drop down from the top of the playing field.

The idea is to create a full layer of blocks. When a player has filled four stacks of lines, those lines disappear and the player gets points. The more layers filled, the more points. The word 'Tetris' is also the word for how players score the most points at one time.

It's a rapid-fire game with players fighting for the most points.

Willis is known as "Blue Scuti" when he plays online — a name inspired by his own interest in space when he was younger, as well as the biggest-known star at the time, UY Scuti.

"I just pieced together 'Blue Scuti,'" he said.

His wins earned him the name "Boy Wonder," Karin said.

"He came out of nowhere, too. ... He wasn't really in the discussion to win, and just kind of blew them out of the water with his qualifier to get into the bracket itself," she added. "And then he just kept winning."

In the bright lights

The Classic Tetris World Championship, held annually in Portland, Oregon, resembles a tournament system of brackets, Willis said. There are six rounds — Top 48, Top 32 and down — and each round is best-of-five, head-to-head against another player.

Players put up a qualifying score, and if it's high enough, the player gets to compete. Each round is best of five, and then players move on to the next round.

"I beat three players," Willis said. "I expected to go out in Round 2, and that was top 16."

At CTWC, the crowd cheered wildly, the stage lights and old tube televisions glared into each player's face. Three announcers' voices blared over the sound system.

But the commotion was lost on Willis.

"It was really fun to see everybody I had known online," he said. "I was more just like excited to be there. I wasn't too nervous."

Somehow he beat one seasoned player, and the next round he won 3-1, then made it to the top 4 — losing 3-1 to place third.

The CTWC felt like a marathon run. Players had to play at a high rate for two hours to qualify, showing they could consistently play. These were called "max-outs" — two hours to get as many points as possible. The qualifying players had to max-out to qualify.

Gibson's highest score for a single game in a set was 1.6 million, the second highest score anyone achieved at the 2023 CTWC.

Originally, qualifying players maxed-out at 999,999 points, because older game components couldn't hold as many digits. With modern recent game controls, players can go beyond.

"It was worse for me," Karin said. "It was nerve racking, you can't control anything, you just watch him do it."

Willis had an aggressive playing style compared to others players at the tournament. His ability to roll the controls so quickly means his score shoots up high.

"I think it's because as a kid you play a little more reckless," Karin said.

The game itself has evolved with time.

Gibson propped his controller against his right foot, balanced it against his left knee, and used a bright blue glove on his right hand. That hand constantly rolled, or tapped, while his left hand pushed the down and up buttons and arrows. This allows him to tap the buttons faster than using a single finger tapping as fast as humanly possible.

"There's a little D-pad on the controller that you can press down, and it will go left or right," Willis said. "Instead of manually just tapping each piece every single time, what you do is you hover your finger over the button just barely so it doesn't cause an input left or right, and then you roll your fingers on the back of the controller. So each finger causes an input."

It's a method of getting the pieces faster to the left or right, he said.

"That's all (the glove) is used for, it's just less friction," he said.

The future's bright

In the online scene, Willis competes against other Classic Tetris players as they livestream their games and compare scores. A third person places the players side by side on the screen and acts as a commentator — known as shoutcasters in the e-gaming world.

"In the online scene it's a lot easier to play against anybody you want to," he said. "You find the time that they're available and you can just play together online."

Willis hopes he can find other players in Stillwater to compete against. Along with Tetris, Willis also enjoys going to the arcade, bowling and cycling.

"I bike to school every morning," he said. "It's about a mile (one way)."

Willis said he once had a passion for space — reflected in the online Tetris name he chose. Although he doesn't know what the future holds, he knows one thing for sure.

He won't stop playing Tetris.