EricICX wins the 2022 Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC), becoming the 5th person to pull off the victory.
Eric discovered the CTWC in 2018 after watching videos such as the 2017 Finals. He then started playing Tetris casually in mid-2018 before taking it seriously in late 2019.
From there, he competed at CTWC in 2020 and 2021, finishing in the Top 24 and Top 32, respectively. In those years, he had taken on the technique called Hypertapping, where a player pushed the button more than 10 times per second.
At the beginning of his Tetris career, he was the first person to reach Level 37 and Level 38. He also got the first Maxout on the PAL version of NES Tetris.
Since then, Eric has started using a technique, called Rolling, where the players roll their fingers to hit the back of their controller toward their other hand. Over the past year, he used Rolling to get the first 3 Million point score in NES Tetris.
His most recent achievement took place in an August 2022 Classic Tetris Monthly (CTM) tournament, where he became the first player to reach the glitched colors level in the NTSC version of NES Tetris. From that game, he also got the World Record for the Highest Score with over 6 Million points and the Highest Level of 146.
Qualifying for the 2022 Classic Tetris World Championship (Friday – Day 1)
This year, each player has 2 hours to get the most Maxouts. The highest Non-Maxout score (Kicker) is used as a tiebreaker. Instead of waiting in line to play their games, players signed up for a 2-hour session where they had unlimited attempts to Maxout the game.
In the first qualifying session, DogPlayingTetris and PixelAndy had got 13 Maxouts which put them in the #1 and #2 seed position, respectively. (For background, Dog was the reigning 2-Time Champion. While his brother, PixelAndy was a 2020 Finalist and 2021 Semi-Finalist after losing to Dog.) Both players had mastered the Rolling technique since then.
The second session had Eric and Fractal competing against each other for the highest seeding rank. Eventually, they became the first players to get 14 Maxouts in Qualifying. It bumped Dog and PixelAndy down to the #3 and #4 seeds, respectively. Fractal beat Eric to the #1 Seed position by getting a higher Kicker. Afterward, they mentioned in an interview that playing together pushed them to get those high seeding ranks.
Early Bracket Rounds (Saturday – Day 2)
After qualifying ended, the Top 48 players were seeded in a Single-Elimination Bracket. The Top 16 seeds were given a Bye to Round 1 (Top 32), while everyone else started in Round Zero (Top 48). On this day, Round Zero and Round 1 were to be played. All matches were a Best of 5.
Surviving The Killscreen For The Win
Since Eric was the #2 seed, he got a Bye (automatic advancement) to Round 1, where he faced K-Poke (#31 Seed). In Game 1, Eric was behind by over 70,000 points when his opponent topped out at Level 29 Killscreen. At this time, Eric was on Level 30, clearing single and double lines until Level 34 where he beat his opponent’s score. This meant that he won the first game.
Game 2 had a similar result. His opponent, K-Poke, had topped out on Level 32. Eric needed to score over 100,000 points at Level 29 speeds to win the game. He managed to win that game, by getting a Tetris Line Clear at Level 35 and surviving to Level 37.
Eric was in the position to sweep the match in Game 3, but topped out early after hanging the I-Piece to the left. He still led the match 2 games to 1.
In Game 4, K-Poke topped out at Level 31 with a lead of over 200,000 points. Nearly 3 minutes later, Eric overcame the deficit to win the match after reaching Level 43. Since this was the last match of the day, Eric decided to keep playing, and he scored 1,524,760 points at Level 47. With that, he advanced to the Top 16.
To give a brief overview of that Top 32 match, Eric won 3 games by clearing lines on Killscreen until he caught up to his opponent’s score. And he lost a game by topping out early.
16 Players Remain (Sunday – Day 3)
At the beginning of the event, Sergio and the Holograms performed the Tetris Anthem. Who knew this tournament had an anthem?
In Round 2 (Top 16), Eric faced off against Dan V (#18 seed). In Game 1, Dan V could not catch up to Eric’s Maxout score when he topped out on the Level 29 Killscreen. So, Eric took the first game. In Game 2, Dan V hung the J-Piece at Level 25, which caused him to top out and lose.
In Game 3, Eric had a 100K+ lead going into the Level 29 Killscreen. Dan V tried to catch up by going for a Tetris Line Clear on Killscreen but got droughted and topped out. Eric won the game and swept the match to advance to the Top 8.
Quarterfinals
Eric faced off against Hydrant (#10 seed) in the Quarterfinals. In Game 1, Eric was in the lead going into the Level 29 Killscreen. Both players were in a Killscreen battle until Hydrant topped out on Level 37. Eric took the first game. The same thing happened in Game 2, with Hydrant losing the Killscreen battle by topping out at Level 32. Eric won the Killscreen battle again in Game 3 after Hydrant topped out on Level 31.
Eric swept the match by outlasting Hydrant in the Killscreen battle.
Semi-Finals: Taking On The Reigning 2-Time Champion
In the Semi-Finals, Eric took on reigning 2-time Champion, Dog (#3 seed). By this time, Dog had mastered the Rolling technique. Game 1 was a neck and neck Killscreen battle, with Eric emerging victorious after Dog topped out on Level 31. In Game 2, Dog topped out on Level 33 with a 40K+ lead, but Eric caught up by clearing lines on Level 37.
The Killscreen battle in Game 3 was the other way around, with Eric having a large lead going into Level 29. Dog managed to survive to Level 39 but was unable to catch up. This meant that Eric swept the match.
Throughout these matches, Eric showed off his Killscreen survival skills which got him into the Finals. He noted in the Post Match interview that you can win by outlasting your opponent “… because everybody makes mistakes eventually”.
The Final Match: Killscreen Battles!
Eric’s survival skills were going to be put to the test in the Finals. He was facing Fractal (#1 seed), who had defeated PixelAndy in the Semi-Finals.
Earlier, I mentioned how Eric was the first person to reach the glitched color levels in NTSC NES Tetris. Before that, Fractal also reached those levels on the PAL version of NES Tetris. Because both players were capable of surviving far beyond Level 29, the games were expected to go the distance.
Double 1.5 Million Point Game
As expected, Eric and Fractal reached Level 29 Killscreen in Game 1, with Fractal having the small lead. The Killscreen battle commenced, with Fractal eventually topping out at Level 47 with about a 35,000 point lead. Eric had the opportunity to take the lead and win, but could not place the I-Piece all the way to the left on Level 48. That game was a double 1.5 Million point game, and Fractal took the first win.
A Level 38 Tetris
In Game 2, they both reached Level 29 as usual. This time, Fractal had a much larger lead going into Killscreen, being ahead by over 200,000 points. When Fractal was at Level 36, he hung the Z-Piece and topped out. Eric needed to score an additional 187,000+ points, which he managed to do after clearing lines all the way to Level 44. It also involved scoring a Tetris on Level 38. Eric won that game which tied the match, 1-1.
Applying Lotion In The Middle Of A Game
The crowd applauded in Game 3 when Fractal applied lotion to his hands in the middle of his game. Afterward, they rooted for the players by chanting, “Let’s Go Fractal!” and “EricICX!” Eventually, both players reached Level 29 again, with Fractal having about a 100,000 point lead.
Fractal topped out at Level 69 with about a 77,000 point lead. Eventually, Eric continued to score points into Level 73 to win the game and lead the Match, 2-1. By the way, it was the first double 2 Million point game in a CTWC match. That’s the power of Rolling.
Messy Board At Level 29
In Game 4, both players reached Level 29 once again. Unfortunately, Fractal had a Square piece on Level 28 that came at the wrong time. This caused his board to be messy going into the Killscreen and topped out. Fractal has less than a 10K point lead, so Eric chased down the points quickly to win the match, 3-1, to become the 2022 Tetris World Champion.
Here are the official results listed below:
- Qualifying Leaderboard
- Gold Bracket: Seed 1-48
- Silver Bracket: Seed 49-80
- Final Standing
