This Week in Tetris: April 1-7

Putting together my Premiere Poll rankings for the past couple months, I found it hard to keep track of the details of all the different matches between top players across all the different tournaments in the Classic Tetris scene. To help sift through all of them, I'm going to try to give a short recap of all the major Tetris matches in the previous week. (Sometimes the recaps might get a little longer, but I'll do my best to make them roughly tweet-shaped.) This is mostly going to be targeted at people compiling the rankings, but sometimes I might showcase other matches that I think are noteworthy or worth watching. If you like this, get some sort of use out of it, notice an inaccuracy, or want to argue about anything, feel free to reach out to me, either in the comments here or on Discord (username "nikvo"). Getting your feedback and engagement will help motivate me to keep doing this in the future.

The numbers before the players' names refer to the April Premiere Poll rankings (not their tournament seeds).

Classic Tetris Monthly

Obviously a big week for CTM as Mega Masters, their biggest annual event and one of the biggest in the whole scene, wrapped up. Since Gerald Freeman wasn't available for the last week of March, and since he's good enough to make it through a lot of top-tier players, it was a good showcase for him.

Mega Masters Round of 16
7 GERALD FREEMAN def. 17 SODIUM (3-0)
Sodium carried a lead into 29 in all three games -- sometimes quite a substantial one -- but Gerald's 29 play was clearly better. Sodium topped out in level 29 twice, but he carried the final game into level 33, surviving a drought in the process.
Twitch

Mega Masters Quarterfinals
7 GERALD FREEMAN def. 8 HUFFULUFUGUS (3-2)
Great match for the first-ever meeting of these players. Gerald took a couple games after Huff topped out right after the 29 transition; Huff successfully defended a decent-sized lead in post-post and was gifted an early top. Fireworks followed in the decider, where Huff nullified a huge 29 transition lead with aggressive play while Gerald fought for his life after a series of misdrops. Gerald ultimately triumphed after Huff lost control of his board on level 35.
Twitch

Mega Masters Semifinals
7 GERALD FREEMAN def. 5 BLUE SCUTI (3-2)
Sublime entertainment. Scuti had a lot of issues keeeping clean, with pre-29 topouts in games 1 and 3. He also let Gerald get a couple levels behind him in game 2, but Gerald couldn't finish the post-29 chasedown. Game 4 set up a decider when Gerald topped out on level 34 after the players were virtually tied for most of the preceding levels. In game 5, Scuti white-knuckled the 29 transition after a gnarly misdrop on 28, but got the pieces to get the stack down. What followed was one of the most intense back-and-forth 29 performances I've ever seen. Just go watch it.
Twitch

Mega Masters Finals
1 FRACTAL def. 7 GERALD FREEMAN (3-2)
Another thrilling decider. Fractal won the opener by having a bit of a points lead after both players crash at the same drought 30 or so lines past the 29 transition, but Gerald got one back in the next game after Fractal couldn't quite get his stack down after going into 29. Games 3 and 4 were an early topout trade, setting up a decider, where Fractal developed a 200k lead in 19 speed play while Gerald was stuck in traffic. Fractal still held onto a 100k lead going into 29, but doesn't quite get a T all the way over to the left on 30, resulting in a tense prolonged dig that included multiple points where virtually anyone else would've topped out. Gerald was able to score a few Tetrises and significantly close the gap, but ultimately lost control on 34 as Fractal was still holding on for dear life. Fractal wins the first ever five-digit payout in Classic Tetris history; he has now won 2 of 3 total MM championships.
Twitch

Classic Tetris League

As if Mega Masters wasn't enough, the semifinals and finals of CTL Season 24 also happened last week in an all-top 8 bracket.

CTL Playoff Semifinals
2 ALEX THACH def. 5 BLUE SCUTI (3-1)
Aggression didn't exactly pay off here, with both players blowing big leads going into the killscreen with overly ambitious 29 stacking. Scuti losing control in early killscreen play after being down big in game 1 and early topping in game 3 sealed the deal for Alex.
YouTube

CTL Playoff Semifinals
4 DOG def. 7 GERALD FREEMAN (3-0)
Hard not to make a "let sleeping does lie" joke here. Dog delayed this match by about 40 minutes, but after he woke up from his nap, he was able to sweep Gerald in three very different games -- a six-figure 29 chasedown in game 1, a killscreen spar that made it to 38 in game 2, an early top in game 3.
YouTube

CTL Playoff Championship
4 DOG def. 2 ALEX THACH (3-0)
Dog continued his well-rested reign of terror and took home the silverware with lights-out 29 play throughout the set. In the first game, Dog recovered from a lackluster 18 to roll over with a Tetris into 39, fending off a great post-post performance from Alex. Game 2 was close, with both players going into transition with 1.1's, but Alex lost control of his board around level 32 while Dog was able to recover from a gnarly longbar hang and mullen to get the back-to-back rollover. Dog was able to seal the deal in Game 3 despite being down six figures around the 29 transition after Alex wasn't able to keep up with Dog's 29 aggression and topped out. This is Dog's fourth CTL title; he breaks a three-way tie with Andy and Nenu for the most all-time.
Twitch

CTWC Milwaukee Regional

This in-person event had the misfortune of being counterprogrammed by the Mega Masters finals, but still attracted some great players and community members and looked like a great time.

CTWC Milwaukee Regional Final
MEME def. 20 VICIOUS RHUBARB (3-1)
Both players beat up on DAS players in the semifinals to set up a rematch of the 2021 Minnesota Regional final, which Meme took in a sweep. Rhubarb struggled a bit on 18, including an early top in game 1, but was able to get things going a bit afterward, such as in game 2 when he was able to complete a killscreen chasedown. Game 3 was the best one from a spectator's point of view, with Meme needing every single line before 39 to chase down Rhubarb. A level 24 topout from Rhubarb meant that Meme brought home the trophy in her first Classic Tetris matches since September 2023.
Twitch

Coming up

There was a lot last week, meaning it's probably going to be a bit quieter this week.

The CTL draw is tomorrow (April 10) at 2300 UTC on the Classic Tetris League Twitch channel, where we'll find out which players have signed up to play CTL this season and who they'll be pitted up against. It's a good time, with Grand Designs hosting. Some Div 1 and 2 CTL matches will probably be scheduled and played in the following week.

 No April CTM Masters matches have been scheduled yet, but you can view the bracket here.


 

 


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