The 2020 Classic Tetris World Championship proves its spot in the eSports world
With the top 8 just finishing up with a decided winner, the momentum and competitive potential for Tetris, a 36-year-old game, is far from peaking.
The 2020 Classic Tetris World Championship just concluded, and despite the technical difficulties and the lack of a live audience, it was still one with many memorable moments, new rivalries, and definitely a handful of upsets. Like many other eSports events in 2020, this event turned into a fully online one, allowing players from all across the world to not just tune in and watch, but even compete.
Of course, you still have some prominent names in the Classic Tetris community like Jonas Neubauer, Harry Hong, Koryan, Jeff (Boom Tetris for Jeff) Moore, Quaid, and so forth. You also have a bunch of new faces who can be considered veterans in the Classic Monthly (CTM) competitions or just new in general who have definitely made their mark in the scene.
The Classic Tetris World Championship was established back in 2010 and has since found its home at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo in 2012. Every year, it has only gained more popularity to the point where the 2016 and 2018 grand finals videos have gone viral. On top of that, it has created a surge of newcomers to really dominate the scene and give the veterans, or as the commentators call them “The Old Guard” a run for their money.
This year, the Classic Tetris channel has broken over 30,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch in the top 8 event. At the time of this piece coming out, the top 8 is not out on the Classic Tetris YouTube channel yet, but you can catch the VOD via their Twitch channel. In the meantime for a good binge, you can catch this past tournament’s matchups along with highlights from previous events.
The buildup, the profiles, and upsets were some of the best and most exhilarating Tetris has seen since last year, given that it’s all online. The commentating from James Chen and Chris Tang was top notch, the sportsmanship and the camaraderie can add some light to a rather gloomy year. This year, the event had more sponsors including Microsoft in partnership and support with their newly released game— Tetris Effect: Connected.
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Not to mention, Tetris is far from over. Because of the classic scene’s rise in popularity and the resurgence of the Tetris franchise in general, it’ll be a great time to jump onto the various titles out now. Tetris 99 launched last year on the Nintendo Switch as a freebie for Nintendo Switch Online members. Tetris Effect launched in 2018 as a PS4 exclusive and is now on the Xbox One and Series X|S with new modes. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is slated to launch on December 8, 2020 on all major console platforms including PC. For those who are more frugal or prefer something cheaper on PC, there is also Tetr.io, a free, open-source Tetris game with a sizable online community with players from all around the world.
However, for those who want to play the classic 1984 game though can either acquire an NES and a functioning CRT TV to do so. If that is a hassle, players who own an Xbox One or Series S|X or gaming pc can play Tetris Effect: Connected’s classic score attack mode to simulate the experience.
To learn more about Tetris, its communities, past match vods, or watch prominent players in the scene, you can follow: