13-Year-Old Tetris Prodigy From Oklahoma Beats AI To Shatter Legendary High Score, Achieving 'Impossible' Feat

Willis Gibson, a 13-year-old from Stillwater, Oklahoma, has made history by reaching a Tetris score previously considered unattainable.

What Happened: On Dec. 21, 2024, Gibson scored “999999” in the original Nintendo version of Tetris, causing the game to freeze, reported The New York Times on Wednesday. This feat, previously attributed only to artificial intelligence, was captured on video by Gibson and uploaded to YouTube.

Gibson, who plays Tetris competitively under the moniker Blue Scuti, reached Level 157, surpassing the game’s “kill screen,” where limitations in coding render the game unplayable. This achievement is unprecedented on the original hardware, previously only accomplished by hacking into the game’s software.

Having already won several regional tournaments, Gibson’s next goal is to clinch the Classic Tetris World Championship. His recent achievement adds to the legacy of Tetris and the game’s continued relevance in the gaming community.

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Why It Matters: This feat by Gibson is a significant milestone in the world of competitive Tetris. The game itself has a storied history, having been released in 1989 and achieving iconic status as one of the most enduring and celebrated video games ever.

Notably, Tetris is the top-selling video game of all time, with over 496.4 million units sold. The game has been featured on various consoles, including Sega, Atari, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo, and continues to be a popular choice among gamers.

Moreover, in March 2023 when Apple Inc. AAPL teamed up with PlayStudios to offer a free one-month trial of Apple TV+ to players who win 2,000 points by playing Tetris.

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