After Blue Scuti was eliminated in the Quarterfinals, I noticed that his family had left the front rows. At that point, I sat in the front row towards the middle of the stage where players do their post-match interview. Lapis and Bendy joined me in the front row.
Blue Scuti’s elimination opened up the first 2 rows of seats. That was good because more people arrived to watch the Semifinals.
The commentators were expected to get a lunch break before the Semifinals, but the tournament was falling behind schedule. So Sharky took a lunch break during the first game of the Semifinals.
Semifinals Match #1 – Tristop vs Alex T
There were 2 matches in the Semifinals, which would happen one at a time.
The first match was Tristop vs Alex T.
On his way to the game station, Alex T stood by the First Place trophy and pointed at it. This brought cheers from the audience.
With Sharky on his lunch break, James Chen and Chris Tang counted down the first game. After the first game ended, Sharky finished his lunch and rejoined the commentary table.
Alex T won the first 2 games, but Tristop won the next 2 games to push the match into a Decider.
When Game 5 began, the audience began the chants. “Let’s Go Tristop!” “Alex Thach!”
It ended quickly due to a lack of participation. Moments later, the chant happened again and it had more support.
Alex T has the lead going into Level 29. Both players continue to push each other to play aggressively. At Level 37, Tristop hangs the long bar on Column 2, creating a high left well. This causes him to top out.
Alex T finishes with an impressive 1.6 million to win the game and match. He advanced to the Finals. NestrisChamps score counter malfunctions when the score is reached.
Lapis, who was sitting next to me, had “Alex’s Hit List”, which he filled out with Alex T’s opponents. When we were shown on the big screen, Lapis crossed Tristop’s name off the list.
Rens, one of the photographers, asked to take a photo of Lapis with the list. Lapis posed with the list and a bottle of parmesan cheese.
Semifinals Match #2 – Dengler vs Dog
Last year, Dog defeated Dengler in the Quarterfinals, despite Dengler being the #2 seed. Since then, Dengler had improved his gameplay to the point where he pulled off the perfect maxout.
This year, he clinched the #2 seed again and made it to the Semifinals where he finds himself in a rematch against Dog.
Dog had always made it to the Semifinals since his debut in 2020. He won the tournament in 2020 and 2021, both of which were held online. In 2022 and 2023, he finished in the Semifinals.
After winning the first game, Dog walked off stage to get a cup of water from the water cooler.
With Dog hydrated, he and Dengler were ready to start Game 2. Dog won that game as well to lead the match, 2-0.
In Game 3, Dengler had a 40 I-Piece drought that ended his game on Level 29. Dog was already in the lead, so he wins the game and sweeps the match to advance to the Finals.
Once the match ended, Lapis wrote down Dog’s name on “Alex’s Hit List”.
In the post-match interview, Dengler pointed out that a software called “TetrisFish” which uses AI to analyze recorded gameplay. “TetrisFish” has since evolved to NEStris.org. (Ansel, the founder of NEStris.org, talks about the website in an interview.)
Jonas Neubauer’s Mom Makes A Guest Appearance
After the Semifinals, there was a special guest.
To give some background, Jonas Neubauer was the 7-time Tetris World Champion who dominated the early years of the tournament. He had suddenly passed away in 2021 at the age of 39.
This year, CTWC invited Jonas Neubauer’s mom, Sharry Neubauer, to make a guest appearance on stage. She looked at the audience and was fascinated by how big the crowd was.
Sharry talked about how Jonas was a positive person, finding ways to cheer people up. She mentioned that Jonas “loved people so much, he couldn’t have enough friends. He always wanted to meet more people.”
Back when I discovered Jonas’s Twitch channel in 2018, I always enjoyed watching the livestreams. Jonas definitely couldn’t have enough friends, he made sure his viewers had a good time. The one thing I miss about Jonas was the livestreams.
It was nice to see Sharry and I wish I got to meet Jonas in-person.
When Sharry finished her speech, she went back to her seat. From there, the commentators shared their Jonas stories.
And then, it was time for the Finals where the winner would receive the golden Jonas Neubauer Trophy.
Special Prize For The Winner
Before the finalist appeared on stage, Kingsman announced that the winner was going to get a special prize from 2014 Champion, Harry Hong. The prize was an unused original NES controller in a glass box. 3arrett placed the special item behind the Golden and Silver J-Piece Trophy.
Finalist Introduction
Following that, Kingsman went straight to introducing the finalist. As Alex T walked on stage, he held up the Golden Trophy to the surprise of the audience. It was a bold move to touch the trophy.
The other finalist was Dog, the 2-time Champion. In 2020 and 2021, he won the tournament with his hypertapping abilities. Since then, he mastered the rolling technique and reached the Semifinals in 2022 and 2023. This year, he was seeking his third tournament win. Just the previous month, he scored 14 million points.
While the players were warming up on the game stations, I was in the front row watching Pumpyheart toss Tetris gummies to the audience. I did not bother trying to get one, it was fun to enjoy the moment.
The Finals Begin
Once the players were ready, we all did a countdown for the first game. At Level 23, Dog had missed a spin on an S-Piece, which led to a series of misdrops. Eventually, Dog topped out which gave Alex T the first win.
Chair Swap
After the game, Dog took his chair across the stage and replaced it with another chair. Apparently, the chair he had originally was wobbly. The chair does matter for players that are rolling, because of the unique grips used for the technique.
With Dog now satisfied with the other chair, Game 2 began. This time, both players reached Level 29 with Dog having the lead. He managed to maintain that lead when Alex T topped out at Level 37. The match was tied 1-1.
Falling On The Floor
In Game 3, both players were neck and neck going into Level 29. When Dog tops out and loses, he immediately jumps off his chair. Through the rumbling on stage from Dog jumping around, I continued to watch Alex T’s game.
All of a sudden, from the corner of my eye, I see Dog lying on the floor as if he fell straight down. At least it sounded like that from the rumbling on stage. From looking at someone else’s footage, that did not seem to be the case.
After Alex T finished the game, he purposefully fell on the floor. Both players picked each other up and went back to their game station.
Alex T led the match, 2-1. He was one win away from winning the tournament. Dog needed to win Game 4 to push the match to a decider.
Last Game?
The commentators hyped up the audience for Game 4 since it was possibly the last game. Going into Level 29, it was neck and neck again. Alex T topped out at Level 33. Dog wins the game.
It came down to the Game 5 decider. Whoever wins the game would become the 2024 Classic Tetris World Champion. The commentators and audience joined in the countdown to the final game of the tournament.
The game got more intense once they both reached Level 29, we were going to find out who wins. Both players continued to get Tetrises. At Level 36, Dog could not get the long bar all the way to the left. Following that, he builds the right well to high and eventually tops out.
Alex T becomes the 2024 Tetris World Champion. The audience continued to cheer him on as he went all the way to the Level 39 Super Killscreen with 1.7 million points.
His mom goes up on stage to congratulate him.
“I Won The Championships!”
With the match over, Kingsman interviewed Dog first. After being eliminated in the Semifinals for the past two years, Dog was happy to return to the finals. Kingsman then handed the silver J-Piece trophy to Dog.
And then it was Alex T’s turn to be interviewed. The audience chanted for him to flex, which he did. From there, Kingsman asked, “What do you want to talk about?”
Alex T exclaimed, “I won the Championships!”, bringing cheers from the audience. After the interview, they invited Alex T’s mom back on stage for an interview. She thanked CTWC for supporting Alex T every year.
Kingsman then handed the golden J-Piece trophy to Alex T’s mom, so that she can hand it over to her son. From there, Alex T held the trophy for the photographers and audience.
A Cheesy Celebration
Alex T is known for pouring parmesan cheese on himself during livestreams.
So, they brought an inflatable pool onto the stage to celebrate the win. Lapis went on stage to hand over the parmesan cheese.
Alex T went into the inflatable pool. From there, Ben Mullen and Pumpyheart poured parmesan cheese. Even Alex T’s mom joined in on the celebration and poured parmesan cheese on her son. Vince Clemente also partook in pouring parmesan cheese.
The CTWC social media team surrounded the stage to record the action.
After the cheesy celebration, they handed water bottles to Alex T so that he can rinse himself off. Alex T also has the tradition of pouring milk on himself during the livestreams, but the Expo organizers did not allow it because it would be too messy.
Pumpyheart handed the trophy back to Alex T, who held up the trophy again. We could see the parmesan cheese stain on the trophy.
The organizers did not have any towels, so they improvised and gave Alex T a bunch of T-Shirts to use as towels to clean his hair and face.
Steve Deluca then handed Alex T a TotalRadNES T-Shirt to wear over his stained shirt.
The commentators made their closing remarks and the event was officially over.
Taking More Photos
With the event over, Alex T and his mom stood in front of the stage to pose for photos from the audience.
I talked to DMJ and Jerpi who were sitting behind me. And then a woman arrived to get DMJ and Jerpi to sign her shirt, which already had other autographs.
And then, it was time to get more selfies. I got selfies with Sharky and Trey Harrison.
The Afterparty
After the tournament, Fireworks, the Afterparty organizer, posted on the CTWC Discord that the Afterparty would be held at Congregation Brewery & Cocina in Pasadena.
A few Tetris players and I walked to the Afterparty where a worker handed us a menu filled with CTWC references.
Inside the restaurant, there were tables that had wings and pizza that anyone was welcome to take. I decided to grab a plate to take some wings.
After that, I ordered a burger and fries. While waiting for my order, there were 2 NES Tetris setups on a table. Blue Scuti was playing on one of the stations while Lucas and Elias watched.
Later on, I was hanging out with Andy, the Gaming Community Director of Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C), who was also waiting for his order. We talked about our jobs, since I work for a marketing company that does marketing for charity organizations. Which eventually led to us talking about how charity organizations need to advertise to generate donations.
Eventually, our orders arrived and I got to dig in on the burger and fries. Andy left after finishing his food because he had to work tomorrow morning.
Chatting With Tetris Players
After I finished the burger and fries, I walked around the restaurant to meet some more people. It was fascinating having players get selfies with me. They were also thanking me for the CTWC timestamps.
Talking To The Champion
Later on, I was hanging out with other players outside the restaurant, it was a bit crowded inside. Alex T was outside carrying the trophy and the glass case with the NES controller. We talked about the funny YouTube comments that people make on CTWC and aGameScout videos.
Since Alex T had stayed at a hotel far from Pasadena, he called an Uber to pick him up. When the Uber arrived, someone else helped carry the glass case into the car.
Last Chats Before Leaving
I also talked to Brodindamp about how I remembered him from the 2019 CTWC West Coast Qualifier. Qualifiers are now called Regionals. I had watched him compete at that event on a Twitch livestream. At that time, Brodin was only 14, now he is 20.
It was hard for me to believe that the 2019 West Coast Qualifier was 5 and half years ago. Back then, I was 20 years old and started taking an online course in Digital Marketing. Now, I’m 26 with a career in Digital Marketing.
Like other people that I had interacted with, Brodin was also thanking me for the behind the scenes work that I do. He brought up that the work appeared to go unnoticed. Thinking about it now, it was probably because I had never been to a CTWC event before. Because, people were recognizing me at the event and acknowledged the work that I have done from timestamping the CTWC matches. They might have thought I was a bot because they had never met me in-person.
At this point, it was past midnight. So I called an Uber to take me home. When my ride arrived, I said goodbye to Brodindamp. It was a bittersweet ride home.
What’s My Rank?
On Monday morning, I checked the Final Standings. I finished in 123rd Place. My qualifying score was disappointing, but I got a memorable ranking number. I jokingly bragged about my rank to my coworkers.
Seeing my low rank reminded me of that episode from SpongeBob where he was in the back of a long line.
Reflecting On My First CTWC Experience
The main reason I wanted to be there was to meet the Classic Tetris community in-person. For many years, I had watched the players compete in various Tetris tournaments on Twitch. All of sudden, I was meeting them in-person.
One thing that was amazing about the community was the international aspect of it. I was meeting players that had travelled all over the world to compete.
It was a weird experience to have people recognize me when it was my first time at CTWC. But having fame within the community proved to be an advantage, as people approached me instead. I did not have to go out of my way to approach them.
Watching the matches with the crowd was fun. It brought a certain energy to the room that was unique from being at the tournament in-person.
I would like to thank the organizers for taking me into consideration by relocating CTWC to California. They were really determined to have me there. (In reality, there was a new team organizing the event and the main organizers lived in Southern California.)
You can view all of the CTWC 2024 matches here. Follow CTWC on Social Media.
Thank you all for reading all of the articles. If you are going to the 2025 Classic Tetris World Championship, I look forward to meeting you.
