With my tournament run over, I took the opportunity to explore the expo before I was needed to provide stats work.
I had never explored the expo in the previous 2 years because I had stayed around to either watch the tournament or do stats work for the entire day.
Exploring the Expo
The Tetris tournament was happening in the same room as other gaming tournaments were happening.
There was a Mario Kart: Double Dash tournament where 8 players competed together in multiplayer mode on 8 separate GameCube consoles.
Besides the various other tournaments, there was a free play area where people could casually play retro games on old TVs (CRT TVs). As someone that was born in 1998 and played on the GameCube as a kid, it was nostalgic to see someone play Super Mario Sunshine on a CRT TV.
I went to the other big room at the expo, where vendors were showcasing their merchandise at their booth. My trivia knowledge in gaming was not very deep, so I couldn’t tell you what most of the merchandise were.
The room also had a skateboard ramp, where someone was painting it. The ramp was reserved for professionals only, the expo schedules them to do a show.
And if you want food, there’s a place in the vendor hall where you could buy food.
I bumped into my IRL friend as I made my way back to the Tetris area.
We observed the Mario Kart Double Dash station and then watched some of the Tetris action happening on the main stage.
My friend headed to the vendor hall to find some things to buy, while I headed to the Stats team table.
Stats Work
I sat next to head statician, Lucy, to observe how she quickly looks up player stats and type that in a shared Google Doc for the commentators to see.
The score runners for the Silver and Bronze Bracket would deliver score sheets to the stats team. I would input those scores in a Google Sheet which would update the bracket.
Lucy would input the scores when a game ended on the main stage. When the matches were over, the referee would give the scoresheet to Lucy. From there, Lucy would check to see if she inputted the scores correctly.
The good part about being at the stats table was that I got front row seats to the main stage.
Zrobot’s First CTWC Gold Bracket Match
I looked forward to watching Zrobot’s first CTWC Gold Bracket match in Round 0. The excitement built up for me as I watched Zro and his opponent Shqdwnight get settled at their game station. Zro’s dad was required to be on the livestream with Zro because Zro was under the age of 13, he was 10 years old.
TetrisRanger, ChaoticHazel, and Alex T were sitting in the front row to watch this match.
Zro won the first 2 games, and then Shqdwnight won the next 2 games to push the match to a decider. Zro won Game 5 to win the match and advance to Round 1 (Top 32).
Round 1 Begins
With Round 1 coming up, I was tasked with providing stats for the CT2 stream, the other side of the stage.
It took me a while to figure out how to quickly get player stats from Lucy’s stats info spreadsheet. Once Lucy showed me how to do it, I got the hang of it.
Before Round 1 began, Kingsman walked over to find someone to be the referee for the CT2 matches. I was doing stats, so I couldn’t do it. But Omenvoir was available. After each match, I would get the score sheet by Omenvoir so that I can double check the scores in the CTWC Official Spreadsheet.
I ended up mainly watching the CT1 stream because the speakers were playing audio from the CT1 commentators. But, I did look over at the CT2 matches when the games were about to end. Early topouts did happen on CT2 matches, but they were rare as the majority of the Top 32 competitors were rollers and made it to Level 19 most of the time.
Seeding Upset
One of the first round matches that happened was Alex T vs Sodium. Alex T lost the first game, afterwards Alex T appeared to have some hand pain and needed some extra time to recover. Despite the hand pain, Alex T won the next 3 games to win the match (3-1) and advance to the Top 16.
The other match happening at the same time was Gwafey (#8 Seed) vs SV (#25 seed), which went to a Game 5 decider. In that game, SV topped out at Level 34 with about 160,000 points, which is about a 4 Tetris lead. As Gwafey was going for one of the Tetrises, a 29 Long Bar drought caused him to top out and lose the game. SV wins the match in a seeding upset.
More Competitive Matches
The next exciting matches for me were iBall vs Coal and Dog vs Zrobot.
iBall vs Coal match was expected to be competitive. iBall was a Semifinalist last year, while Coal finished in the Top 16. But now, these players had to face each other in the Round of 32.
iBall had won the first game.
Game 2 went the distance, with Coal reaching the Level 39 Super Killscreen with a score of 1,513,000. iBall ended up winning that game with a score of 1,576,557. That game ended with a double 1.5 million score.
iBall would go on to win Game 3 to sweep the match. His friends from the Super Mario Bros. speedrun community celebrated his match victory.
Meanwhile, there was another match going on between Dog and Zrobot. It was the 2-time Tetris World Champion versus the 10-year old Tetris prodigy.
Dog won the first game after Zro topped out at Level 20.
In Game 2, both players were neck and neck going into Level 29. Zro continued to play aggressively to keep pace with Dog, but topped out at Level 32. Dog wins the second game and leads the match, 2-0.
In Game 3, Zro had the lead going into Level 29 and maintained that lead with his aggressive play. That was until he topped out at Level 34 with about a 77,000 point lead, which is about a 2 Tetris lead. This put Dog in a chasedown situation, it was not easy when you have to do this at Level 29 speeds. The 2-time Tetris World Champion successfully completed the chasedown to sweep the match and advance to the Top 16.
If you are wondering how Zro was doing after his elimination, don’t worry. I saw him playing tag with Alex T.
A Photo with the CTWC 2026 Banner
In between the matches, my friend came back from exploring the expo. We took a photo of the CTWC banner before my friend headed out.
Last Match of Round 1
Eventually, we were down to the final matches of Round 1.
I was at the CT2 stats table watching the Game 5 decider between HydrantDude and Cobra.
Cobra had topped out at Level 29 with about a 56,000 point lead. Hydrant needed to get 2 more Tetrises to win the match. He gets a Tetris, but accidentally double flips a long bar shortly afterwards to put his board in a messy situation. Hydrant tops out, falling 10,000 points short of winning the deciding game. Cobra wins Game 5 and the match to advance to Top 16.
Chatting with Chris Tang
This was my third time at the Classic Tetris World Championship. I noticed how some players get very emotional after being eliminated from the tournament. I mentioned this to Chris Tang, who was sitting next to me while I was doing stats during Round 1. Chris Tang mentioned how the players always have next year to try again, compared to Esport tournaments back then which were mostly one time occurrences.
All Eyes On The Silver Bracket Finals
With the Round 1 Gold Bracket matches completed, I could watch the Silver Bracket Finals.
It was the last match of the day, the remaining crowd gathered in front of the CT3 stage to watch the match between Greentea and Sam Z.
Greentea ended up sweeping the match. Wylie had a difficult time interviewing Greentea, as Greentea’s English was very limited.
Despite the awkward interview, Greentea got his prize for winning the Silver Bracket and did a photo shoot with his Tetris friends that had traveled from Japan along with him.
With all the Tetris matches done for the day, it was time for all of us to leave the venue as the SoCal Gaming Expo had closed and everyone needed to leave.
I waited at the bus stop to leave Pasadena. Other tetris players showed up to take the same bus. They were going to In-N-Out, a tourist favorite for anyone vacationing in the Los Angeles area. (If you want the fries crispy at In-N-Out, tell the cashier that you want the fries “well”.)
As much as I wanted to hang out with the Tetris players, it was getting late at night and I decided to head back to my place so that I could wake up in the morning.
