Best of Five: The Classic Tetris Champions is a documentary series that covers the 2014 Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC). Where players compete head-to-head on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version of Tetris.
Jonas Neubauer had won the last 4 tournaments and entered the 2014 CTWC as the defending champion once more. It will not be easy for him to defend his title, as other competitors have improved their gameplay since the previous year.
The first episode goes over the history of CTWC and the background of some of the players. It is easy to lose your audience by rambling about all the nuances of NES Tetris. Luckily, the first episode also does a good job explaining how NES Tetris works without cramming unnecessary details.
After that, the viewers watch a CTWC match. With new game-capturing technology, the documentary can show the games in high definition and show new statistics. This enhances the viewer experience and improves the commentary.
CTWC commentators, Chris Tang and James Chen, provide post commentary. The new statistics helped improve the commentary of the game because it showed the challenges that some players had in the tournament. This can be seen in situations where a player loses because they had a long bar drought.
Watching the documentary as a Tetris Fan
I discovered the CTWC back in 2017, so I already knew which 2 players made the finals and who won the tournament. But most of the matches were never uploaded to YouTube, so it was my first time watching them.
It was surprising how intense some of the matches were, even the ones that involved the elite players at the time. After watching some of the games, I found myself wondering what would have happened if the other player had won.
The post commentary by Chris Tang and James Chen enhanced the viewer experience with their entertaining and informative commentary. They always do an amazing job commentating on the CTWC every year and that carried over in the documentary.
Best of Five: The Classic Tetris Champions is a must-watch for anyone who is a fan of Tetris. You will not be disappointed.
How to watch “Best of Five: The Classic Tetris Champions”
Best of Five: The Classic Tetris Champions premieres on Friday, May 31, 2024.
If you are interested in watching the docuseries, you can preorder it here. Using the promo code, “INTEREST”, gives you a 20% discount. Bringing the price down to $20 US.
You can also watch it for free on July 8, 2024. When the episodes are uploaded on the YouTube channel, Chris Higgins Films.
(Update 7/16/2024: The docuseries is available on YouTube for free)
