This Week in Tetris: April 22-28

As the month draws to a close and CTWC gets closer, we're starting to see the field widened and our assumptions challenged by big upsets. Challengers is finished, the CTL season is shaping up to be a great one, and one of the most anticipated brackets in Masters history is looming. It feels like anything could happen.

I'm introducing line scores for this week's matches using something I'm calling "slash notation", loosely inspired by how cricket scores are communicated. Please let me know if you find this helpful or confusing; I put a key at the bottom of the post. The numbers next to the player's names refer to the April 2024 Premiere Poll rankings, not tournament seeds. As always, positive and negative feedback is encouraged. if you like this, let me know, and if you see any inaccuracies, let me know what I got wrong.

CTWC Dallas Underground

This was a fun little event where four top Texas-based players (3 PIXELANDY, 4 DOG, 9 MYLES, 17 SODIUM) met in someone's (?) living room to play in a round-robin format that mixed esoterica (like relay games and line sprints) with more conventional 18/19/29 start games. Dog somehow found a way to lay down a 1.9 mullen during this chaos. The top two performers then faced off in a final best-of-five match.

The Motor City regional will be the last in-person event before the big one in Pasadena. It's happening in the Detroit suburb of Berkley on May 11.

CTWC Dallas Underground Finals, April 27, 2024
4 DOG def. 17 SODIUM (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
DOG	1302/	246/62	1358/	/267
SODIUM	1181/304	310/	1039/230	1199/260

Multiple people in chat were putting a bounty on VITS executions, so keep that in mind. Game 1 was close until 29 and featured a deep killscreen run from both players, but Dog was able to snag way more Tetrises. Dog succumed to a high-up hang in 18 in game 2, but made it up in the next game with a 672 transition and a 1.3 going into killscreen. Game 4 was another close one up until killscreen, with both players getting themselves out of gnarly digs on 28, but Dog was able to outlast Sodium to win the tournament.
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Classic Tetris Monthly

April Challengers has wrapped up; the current plan is to cover the semifinals & finals of that tournament every month (with occasional coverage of color-bracket matches if something of note happens, like a big upset). The much-anticipated Red Bracket of Masters (1 FRACTAL, 9 MYLES, 3 PIXELANDY, 5 BLUE SCUTI) is coming on Tuesday, April 30 at 2100 UTC.

CTM April 2024 Challengers Semifinals, April 27, 2024
HYDRANTDUDE def. PEEKAYRIC (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
HYDRANTDUDE	1185/	1104/	759/137	/47
PEEKAYRIC	930/239	1034/233	779/	111/40

Hyant proved that he can still jounce his opponents out of the tournament. Games 1 and 2 made it to killscreen with Hydrant up; Peek topped out soon afterward in each game before Hydrant had to do a whole lot on 29 speeds. Hydrant had a huge 734 transition in game 4, but, as seems to happen all too often in this sort of game, he hung a bar on level 19 and gave it away to Peek, who was two levels ahead and already had the points. Peek gave it back in game 4 after giving up the ghost playing aggressive while trying to get himself out of an early dig, allowing Hydrant to advance to the finals.
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CTM April 2024 Challengers Semifinals, April 27, 2024
18 ALLENBOT def. COBRA (3-2)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
ALLENBOT	966/268x	961/247	939/234	/26	1046/
COBRA	986/243	974/234	801/240x	53/17	1044/240

Cobra gave Allen a scare by taking the first two in a formula we've seen from him before: get a good lead going into 29 and dare the opponent to chase him down. Allen turned the tables in game 3, where Cobra spent most of 19 digging and could only muster a 757 killscreen transition. Game 4 was an early top from Cobra, setting up a decider, where Cobra carried a two-to-three tetris lead all the way to the killscreen. Allen leveraged his superior 29, though, to close the gap by Cobra's level 30 topout and complete the reverse sweep.
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CTM April 2024 Challengers Finals, April 27, 2024
18 ALLENBOT def. HYDRANTDUDE (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
ALLENBOT	1173/	753/200	/108	852/
HYDRANTDUDE	1045/242	796/	497/103	840/207

The finale started off with Allen able to get a maxout into killscreen while Hydrant struggled through a very nervy 28. He survived that, but couldn't roll anything to the left on level 30 while Allen was busy laying down some killscreen tetrises. The score evened up in game 2 when Allen's VITSmania was punished with an S/Z burst late in post. Hydrant early topped in game 3 and both players struggled through 18 a bit in game 4. Hydrant was able to get his board straight for the first part of post, but suffered a series of cascading misdrops in level 25. The resulting dig would get the better of him a dozen or so lines later, allowing Allen to take home his Free 40 Characters. This is his first Challengers title despite runner-up in Masters in September 2023. The only CTM trophy he's gotten before now is Hopefuls from two years ago.
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Classic Tetris League

The second full week of Season 25 featured some killer matchups as the division tables start to take shape (you can view the current standings here). TUGI continues to stand out, while 24 SUNNY and 14 RAHMATIONS course corrected in a thrilling match. None of the top players in any division should feel comfortable right now.

A full slate of 18 matches has been announced for the coming week. Some standouts include 5 BLUE SCUTI v TUGI, 7 GERALD FREEMAN v 12 DANV, and 13 SV v 14 RAHMATIONS.

CTL Season 25 Division 1C, April 24, 2024
4 DOG def. 9 MYLES (3-0)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3
DOG	1208/	478/	1186/217
MYLES	1017/246	400/99	1138/307x

Dog turned on the jets in the killscreen in the first game, forcing Myles to play super-agressive and set up for a speculative tetris. Game two was an early top, with a misshifted T causing a blocked well a little too high a hundred lines in. Myles' best chance came in game three where, late in post, Dog got a bit too ambitious with his pace after going ahead big in 18 and set up too many tucks and dependencies too high. Myles needed a few tetrises on the killscreen and played safe accordingly, but couldn't stay clean long enough to get them before starting to run out of room. It should be easier sledding for Myles (0-2, 1 pt) from here, as Dog (2-0, 14 pts) and Fractal have now both survived their matches against the player most likely to challenge for their playoff spots.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1B, April 25, 2024
TUGI def. 6 SIDNEV (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
SIDNEV	818/	742/162	488/135	517/108
TUGI	710/178	/225	565/	/146

Whoa, what happened here? Both players ran into trouble with the same S- and Z-heavy sequence in post in game 1, causing Tugi to top out (though Sidnev mullened an impressive dig), but the same thing happened again and again in games 2 through 4: Sidnev's very high stacking turned difficult RNG into something that was impossible to survive. She was able to develop substantial leads in games 2 and 4, but topped out too early for the chasedown to dip into 29. Sidnev (1-1, 7 pts) suddenly finds her upcoming games against Gerald, Scuti, and DanV taking on additional weight.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1B, April 25, 2024
7 GERALD FREEMAN def. CHILLER (3-0)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3
GERALD FREEMAN	/128	/201	1317/
CHILLER	517/104	614/141	1182/237

Another gnarly set for Chiller, with two misshift-induced early exits from the first two games. There were some positive takeaways, though -- they had a solid lead through 18 in all three games, and they had a very good game 3, putting up 1.1 into killscreen and forcing Gerald earn it through his typical top-tier play. Chiller (0-4, 1 pt) will need to build on these sucesses in their remaining matches aginst Ansel, Tugi, and DanV to keep themselves in Div 1. Gerald (2-0, 14 pts) has looked good taking care of business so far, but has a daunting calendar ahead of him.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1A, April 25, 2024
13 SV def. PEEKAYRIC (3-2)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
SV	931/286x	978/235	955/	1057/235	607/
PEEKAYRIC	1003/238	951/246x	880/218	/231	570/151

SV survives some stiff competition from Peek. Game one for both players was middling until halfway through post, when Peek was able to get his board straight and go up almost 200k by killscreen. He let his board get a bit too high right afterward, and while SV's chasedown effort was valliant, he was only able to get halfway there before one missed five-tap did him in. It was Peek's turn to miss a chasedown in game three, with SV topping out soon after 29 and Peek fighting to get his stack down until it got the better of him 16 lines into killscreen. Both players then suffered topouts induced by delayed burns: Peek in game 3 late in post, SV in game 4 right after transition. The decider ended when Peek couldn't get his stack down in post and topped out after playing a bit too aggressive. Peek (0-2, 2 pts) got two points that could potentially help him stay out of relegation trouble, but if he keeps playing like this, he won't need them.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1B, April 26, 2024
12 DANV def. ANSEL (3-2)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
DANV	383/102	940/212	197/	998/176	1295/
ANSEL	458/	731/209	75/45	/223	981/266

Record-breaking match for DanV, with the good and bad that comes with it. Games one and three were offsetting early topouts. Two and four were both 700 transitions for DanV, with game four being the first-ever perfect 19 transition in comp. In the second game, DanV let his stack get a little messed up into the 19 transition in order to hit that 700; luckily for him, a drought meant that Ansel wasn't able to score either before a simultaneous topout late in post. Despite (or perhaps because of) the transition record, Dan topped out after 176 lines in game 4, and Ansel was able to complete the chasedown right before killscreen. DanV then decided he had a match to win and put together a solid decider game where Ansel couldn't get close to chasing down a 200k killscreen defecit. DanV will hope dropping points in his first match of his season won't come back to bite him later (though, even then, the record will probably be worth it), while Ansel (0-3, 3 pts) got two big points that could help him stay afloat in Div 1.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1C, April 28, 2024
SOMALIAN def. NEK0 (3-2)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
SOMALIAN	514/	541/129	/104	176/60	/195
NEK0	367/127	597/133	392/97	239/	778/183

One to forget for both players. Only game 5 saw a significant amount of post-19 play, where Somalian took the set after Nek0 set up dirty left-well and couldn't get the 5-tap. Nek0 falls to 1-1 with 9 points, with some very tough matches ahead of him.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1C, April 28, 2024
16 PORTAL def. SOMALIAN (3-2)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
PORTAL	/262	963/230	25/8	1346/245*	/83
SOMALIAN	1095/230	966/	49/	1087/242	152/62

*Portal's topout score; score at Somalian's topout unknown.
Somalian shook off his previous set and went up big with three levels of lines in hand, but topped out at the 29 transition right as Portal was pulling ahead with 32 lines of excellent killscreen play. Portal also got into a bunch of digs in game 2 and let Somalian have two levels of future sight, but it was Portal's turn to be tripped up at killscreen, letting Somalian take a game. After topping out very early in game 3, Portal had a monster game 4, though the viewers missed a big chunk of it due to Nestrischamps operator error (guess who the restreamer was <3). An early top from Somalian gave Portal game 5 and the set, leaving him at 1-1 and 5 points on the season. Somalian (1-3) moved from 0 to 7 points from today's sets, but he's in for a bumpy finish against Noah, Myles, and Tegamech.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1A, April 28, 2024
14 RAHMATIONS def. 24 SUNNY (3-2)

Lv 19 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
RAHMATIONS	1269/	984/292x	/261	1102/295	1022/
SUNNY	1147/260	1112/263	1016/240	1192/	960/231

MATCH OF THE WEEK. The fourth-ever 19-all-the-way CTL match was the best so far, as both players made it through the first 230 lines every game and put on some thrilling killscreen performances. Game 1 was close through most of pre-29, with the players only separated by 6k at the killscreen transition, but while Sunny was able to make it through the first three levels afterward, he wasn't able to keep up as Rah kept raining down tetrises. Sunny put together a solid game 2, with a couple killscreen tetrises being the cherry on top, while Rah suffered through much of the game before the Untitled Line 140 Milestone and went down big. He was able to survive to level 35, but couldn't get set up, let alone get anywhere near chasing Sunny down. He had more luck in the game 3 chasedown, where wild swings in score kept the 29 score much closer and a few misdrops kept Sunny from going any deeper than level 30. Game 4 belonged in a top ten matchup, as Sunny was able to defend a 70k 29 lead deep into killscreen as both players found solves and traded tetrises. Rah took the decider after Sunny went into 29 a bit too high. Sunny's (0-2) two points from this match allow him to keep pace with Peek and Coal get ahead of Timmykim in the standings.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1B, April 28, 2024
12 DANV def. TUGI (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
DANV	/272	12/10	1158/258	1185/
TUGI	1098/238	28/	1027/249	1119/241

Tugi played great yet again, refusing to top out before the killscreen, but this one ultimately came down to 29 play. Tugi got a level 29 tetris on game 1, but topped out soon afterward, letting Dan out the chasedown. Dan spired his way into a very early topout in game 2, but put up back-to-back 1.1's before the killscreen in the next two. Tugi maxed in both as well, but his rolling hasn't been in the oven long enough to keep up with Dan past level 30. DanV (2-0, 11 pts) has been dropping points despite the set wins, but is keeping himself within striking distance of a playoff spot, while Tugi's (2-1, 13 pts) big win against Sidnev means he can set his sights higher than survival.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1B, April 28, 2024
5 BLUE SCUTI def. ANSEL (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
BLUE SCUTI	1042/	1129/270	/156	1191/
ANSEL	1027/226	/265	628/134	1006/254

Scuti gets back on track with a solid performance after his loss in Paris. Game 1 was a matter of outlasting his opponent after Ansel topped out on 28. In game 2, Ansel was able to go ahead big in 18 play and leverage a big line difference after Scuti couldn't keep clean. Scuti was gifted game 3 and developed a 100k lead before killscreen in game 4, nailing a couple more tetrises and forcing Ansel to play aggressive enough to top out. Scuti (2-0, 13 pts) is one point back from Gerald for the division lead, while Ansel (0-4, 4 pts) is being sucked into the relegation battle and needs a result in his match against Chiller.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1A, April 28, 2024
13 SV def. 21 COALBUCKET (3-2)

Lv 19 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
SV	802/	196/84	518/	183/57	1083/
COALBUCKET	753/183	340/	430/99	/66	980/208

Some gnarly seeds, but even so, there were way too many early topouts from both players, with no game making it to killscreen. Coal succumbed to a prolonged post dig in game 1 and had his game 3 end with a diving board; SV couldn't keep clean in games 2 and 4 and topped out in 18 as a result. The decider was better, with 600k transitions from both players and a close game up until level 26, when Coal suffered a misdrop and topped out after a dozen-line fight. SV ended up mullening that one for a 1.3. SV (3-0, 17 pts) currently sits in second after Rah in the division table with one fewer game played, but he's played more games than Alex T and Andy and has yet to face either. Coal (0-3, 2 pts) has some (but by no means all) of his tougher matches out of the way, but needs some wins against Timmykim and Peek to prevent this div from getting real uncomfortable real quick.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1A, April 28, 2024
2 ALEX THACH def. 14 RAHMATIONS (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
ALEX THACH	70/	1333/268	1425/	1272/
RAHMATIONS	30/13	1367/	1153/270	1260/270

We expect greatness from Alex, but Rah is setting out to prove that he's the real deal. Rah did gift game 1 to Alex very early, which I wouldn't recommend when facing the overall score record holder, but every other game involved substantial killscreen runs. Game 2 was thrilling, with a razor-thin margin at killscreen and both players devouring tetrises like they're candy until Alex lost control on 32. Game 3 was huge for Alex; though Rah still maxed out into 29 despite a series of misdrops in post, Alex went in with a 1.2 and never looked back, getting to just under a rollover in a mullen that included a profane six-high tetris on 36. Game 4 featured a double-600 into transition, but while Rah had to dig and gave Alex 15 lines of future sight, he got a crazy dirty tetris to keep it within 100k. Ultimately, though, he had to play aggressive, and despite grabbing tetrises and making it 40 lines in, he succumbed to a bar hang on 33. It's difficult to grasp exactly what's going on in 1A, since Alex (2-0, 13 pts), Rah (3-1, 20 pts), SV, and Pixelandy have all played a different number of games, but Alex T is still a clear favorite and Rah has shown he's more than capable of crushing the playoff hopes of anyone.
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Slash Notation Key

600/135	Player had a natural, non-mullen topout at 600 thousand points (last three digits of scores are truncated) and 135 lines. Usually this indicates a losing score; if both players have a score that looks like this, it indicates a simultaneous or near-simultaneous topout.
630/	Player had a winning score of 630 thousand points at the moment of their opponent's topout.
/145	Successful chasedown; player surpassed their opponent's score at 145 lines.
550/155x	Failed chasedown; player topped out at 550 thousand points and 155 lines before surpassing a known target score.