The 2021 Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) will be an online tournament with the same format as 2020. The only difference is that the tournament will start about a month sooner compared to the previous year.
Despite not having an in-person audience, the CTWC continues to be an exciting event that thousands will look forward to. One way viewers have recreated the energy of having a real-life audience was to create a viewing party on Discord. This happened on the Classic Tetris Monthly Discord server, which you can join here. This will be a good opportunity to meet members of the Classic Tetris community.
Qualifying Rounds
The unique part about online qualifiers is that players do not have to wait in line for one qualifying attempt. (The wait times were around 30 minutes at the 2019 CTWC.) Instead, they will have 2 hours of unlimited attempts.
aGameScout mentioned one cool thing about online qualifiers. It gives viewers “the opportunity to take a look at some of the relatively unknown players who don’t normally get a spotlight.” Last year, the online format allowed the Classic Tetris community to learn more about Anna and Uncle Mike. Learn more about them in the video below.
My 3 Qualifying Tips for Players
1. Enable VOD Saving
When streaming your session, make sure you set your Twitch account to keep your VODs. This will help tournament referees verify your scores. To enable the setting, check out the instructions here.
2. After Final Game, Show your Top Scores On Stream
When you finish your last game, do NOT turn off the game or stop the stream yet. Before you do, make sure you show your Top 3 scores as shown in the image below. This will let you know which scores to look out for when submitting them. (Note: If you are capable of maxing out multiple times, have a max-out counter on your stream so you can keep track of them. Also, write down your highest non-max-out score.)
3. When Checking Timestamps, Watch Your Runs at Double Speed
When finding the starting timestamps of your runs, use your documented Top 3 scores as a guide to figuring out which games to find. Use the “Top Score”, seen in the following image, as a guide to finding out when you achieved your high scores.
If either your 2nd or 3rd highest score came after your highest score, use the Top 3 score list, which appears before you start a new game, as your guide for finding those scores.
Once you find the game with one of your Top 3 scores, do your best to find out when you started that particular game. To check if you picked the right spot, watch the beginning of the game for about 50 lines without skipping forward. (To save some time, playback the game at x2 speed.) Once you’ve seen the first 50 lines of your game, skip forward bit by bit to confirm that it is the game with one of your Top 3 scores.
(There’s a reason I don’t recommend skipping forward the first 50 lines of the Gameplay. This is because it’s hard to detect that you stamped the wrong game if you timestamped an individual game that ended early, without watching the entire run of the first 50 lines.)
CTWC Playoffs
The playoffs are the same format as last year. In the Top 64 Playoffs, players placed among 8 separate Double Elimination Brackets. Unlike previous tournaments, players will NOT be playing with the same piece sequences. The winner of each bracket will advance to the Top 8.
The Top 8 will be a Single Elimination Bracket with the Winner becoming the 2021 Classic Tetris Champion.
Check out the CTWC website for more details on the 2021 CTWC.
Final Thoughts on the 2021 Classic Tetris World Championship
From watching the 2020 CTWC, I know that this year will continue to be an amazing tournament to watch despite having to be online. One thing that I’ve enjoyed about the online format was that we were able to see the entire qualifying session of the each player.
Despite not being able to meet members of the Classic Tetris community in person, I still enjoy interacting with them on Twitch and Discord. Next year, I definitely look forward to meeting the community in real life.
For me, a major difference will be not having 7-time Champion, Jonas Neubauer, in the tournament. I have always rooted for him whenever he competed at the CTWC. On a positive note, I’ve enjoyed being a part of this community and I look forward to seeing all the players successfully cope with terrible RNG in their games.
Keep up with the latest CTWC news by following them @ClassicTetris. The Tournament will be live on their Twitch Channels, ClassicTetris and ClassicTetris2.
Check out the video below for more information on the 2021 CTWC.
