The Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) unveiled the Jonas Neubauer Trophy to honor the Original Tetris Champion.
At the beginning of January 2021, Jonas Neubauer had suddenly passed away.
Jonas Neubauer Tributes
Afterward, tributes came pouring in. Dani Sharkey wrote an amazing piece that details her experience with Jonas as a friend. CTWC organizer, Adam Cornelius, published an article on how Jonas envisioned something larger than just the tournament itself.
The ClassicTetris Twitch Channel aired a marathon of Jonas Videos. It included all of Jonas’s matches from the Finals of the first 9 tournaments.
Towards the end of January 2021, aGameScout created a Highlight Reel of Jonas’s Tetris Career.
In the months leading towards the next tournament, the New Yorker and Washington Post wrote articles on how Classic Tetris had evolved and how Jonas passed the torch to the next generation.
The 2021 Classic Tetris World Championship
In September, the 2021 Classic Tetris World Championship began with a qualifying round. This became the first tournament without Jonas Neubauer, which felt different for me as I always rooted for him.
During one of the Group Stage matches, Chris Bidwell brought up a story of his first CTWC appearance in 2013. Where Jonas went out of his way to approach him to thank him for coming to the event.
After the Group Stages, Chris Tang made a speech on how Jonas Neubauer contributed to the Classic Tetris community.
CTWC Unveils The Jonas Neubauer Trophy
Before the Finals, CTWC revealed The Jonas Neubauer Trophy, which is a J-Piece trophy. A Jonas quote engraved on the trophy reads, “If you’re a high visibility player, it’s on you to move the community in a positive direction”. This quote came from a 2018 interview with Arda Ocal.
After the trophy was revealed, Heather Ito (Jonas’s Wife) made a surprise guest appearance via live stream. She gave a speech about Jonas and the support that she received from the Classic Tetris community.
Chris Tang and James Chen, went on to give their thoughts. In particular, James Chen talked about his experience of meeting Jonas for the first time in 2017.
