This Week in Tetris: April 8-14

We've made it to the second installment of This Week in Tetris! I'm going to normally put these out on Tuesday, but I might finish a bit early once in a while. As always, feel free to engage with me to tell me if you liked this or if I've goofed anything up.

The new CTL season kicked off with the draw and opening night last week, so this week I'm including a preview of the new first- and second-tier divisions in addition to the match recaps.

Classic Tetris Monthly 

CTM didn't slow down at all after the conclusion of Mega Masters, with the Orange Bracket of the April edition of Masters and two Challengers brackets being played.

CTM April 2024 Masters Round 1 (Orange Bracket)
2 ALEX THACH def. 21 COALBUCKET (3-0)
Coal had a hard time getting anything going, topping out early in the first two games. In game 3, Coal had a 1.1 into 29, but he was playing Alex T so he was down almost 200k anyway.
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CTM April 2024 Masters Round 1 (Orange Bracket)
12 DANV def. 7 GERALD FREEMAN (3-0)
Gerald had a rough couple games to start this one, with him going into 29 too high in game 1 and topping out very early in game 2. He made DanV work for it more in game 3, developing a decent lead pre-29 and fighting until 31, but DanV was able to make up the gap with a solid killscreen performance and small chasedown. This is a big upset, especially considering Gerald's MM run.
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CTM April 2024 Masters Round 2 (Orange Bracket)
2 ALEX THACH def. 12 DANV (3-0)
Dan matched (or, in the case of game 2, exceeded) Alex's pre-29 game, but Dan had to know he'd have to go aggressive if he had any chance of beating the world record holder. He held on until level 35 for the first game, with both players going ham on the killscreen, but he didn't make deep enough runs to challenge Alex in the other two games.
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CTM April 2024 Challengers Round 2 (Orange Bracket)
HYDRANTDUDE def. 17 SODIUM (3-2)
The fourteenth matchup between these veteran players went to a decider after four games that didn't reach 29; Sodium got a little too greedy during 18 in game 1 and suffered a few misdrops in a row on 22 in game 2, while Hydrant dropped the next two after not taking care of the left side of his stack in game 3 and misdropping during a pre-transition dig in game 4. The decider was a great game, where Hydrant was able to develop a small-to-medium-ish lead at 29 into a huge one while Sodium stayed alive but only just. Hydrant upsets one of two Premiere Poll-ranked players in Challengers (the other being Allenbot) and will move on to face blue bracket winner Peekayric in the semifinals.
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Classic Tetris League

The CTL Season 25 draw happened on Wednesday night, and the field was far more stacked than anticipated, as all of the Premiere Poll's top seven players (and 16 of the top 25) threw their hats in the ring. The top tier features three chunky 8-player divs, all featuring great matchups up and down the table. The top two players in each div will get into the playoffs, with the two division winners with the highest point totals receiving byes. Each div will have both an auto relegation and a playoff relegation spot, which is the first time auto relegation is being used in Division 1 since Season 16.

Division 1A is headlined by 2 ALEX THACH and 3 PIXELANDY, whose match will be one of the most anticipated of the season. Alex had a near-perfect Season 24, only dropping one game before being bounced by Dog in the finals, while Andy is back to defend his Season 23 championship after sitting the last one out. Both are multiple-time CTL champions, with Alex chasing his third title and Andy looking to join his brother as a four-time winner. They will be joined by 13 SV, hoping to return to the playoffs after a great 4-1 run last season, and 14 RAHMATIONS, who looks to improve on a 1-4 Season 23 record that included a decider loss to SV. 21 COALBUCKET will get multiple chances at big wins to keep up his rise in the rankings after winning 2B, while 24 SUNNY will be playing in Div 1 for the first time after winning a different 2B back in Season 22. Restreamer extraordinaire PEEKAYRIC, surviving 1-4 in a tough 1A last season, and singing sensation TIMMYKIM, annihilating 2A with a 5-0 record, round out the div.

CTL's six-person pool system for the draw resulted in the absurd situation where 6 SIDNEV was in the second pool, and the resulting Division 1B is a bloodbath, where she'll be joined by 5 BLUE SCUTI and 7 GERALD FREEMAN. Frequent Most Aggressive Player award-winner Sidnev last played in season 23, where she made the playoffs with a 4-1 record before falling to Myles in the first round; she'll be looking to return to the playoffs to chase her first title. Scuti and two-time champion Gerald both finished with a 4-1 record last season (with Scuti's loss coming to Dog in an all-timer), before Scuti lost to Alex and Gerald got trampled by Dog in the semifinals. They're joined by 12 DANV, who barely missed out on the playoffs last season despite a 4-1 record and a victory over Gerald, and 17 SODIUM, whose very good 3-2 season last time around included wins over Rhubarb and Wallbant. TUGI is a complete wildcard, making a playstyle switch from DAS to rolling and competing in CTL for the first time since being promoted from Div 2 in Season 21. CHILLER narrowly avoided a relegation playoff match by one point with a 1-4 Season 23 record, while ANSEL moves up to Div 1 after finishing second in 2A last season and winning a playoff match against NGC Man in a decider.

4 DOG's title defense is made way more complicated by being drawn into the same Division 1C as 1 FRACTAL, but if Dog can keep up the sort of performance that we saw in the Season 24 playoffs -- especially when it comes to 29 play -- then he has as good of a chance as any to snap Fractal's historic win streak. Season 15 champion Fractal last played in CTL way back in Season 17, finishing 3-2 after dropping sets to Cheez (!) and eventual champion Nenu (!!). Dog and Fractal don't love the fact that they're in the same div as 9 MYLES and 10 THEDENGLER, two players who have proven that they can take down top-level competition. Myles and Noah both finished 3-2 in the same division in Season 23 (Noah took the set between them 3-1), but Noah made it into the playoffs with a better game difference. 16 PORTALLL isn't exactly a pushover either, and will be looking to carry momentum from his Mega Masters run into CTL to improve on his 1-4 record from last season. As if this division didn't already have enough going on in it, TEGAMECH is making his comp return after an almost two-year absence (save a 3-2 loss against Mecex in Austria last month). His last CTL div is actually the exact same Season 17 div that Fractal played in, finishing 1-4 (Fractal won the meeting between them 3-1, if you're curious). SOMALIAN kept his Div 1 membership card despite a 0-5 record last season after a playoff win against Jerpi, while NEK0 makes his Div 1 debut following back-to-back playoff promotions.

The second tier will have two divisions of six players. Each div will have an auto promo spot, two playoff promo spots (presumably the two third-place players will play each other for the chance to face a Div 1 player like last season), and a playoff relegation spot. Division 2A features BISBY, a longtime Classic Tetris comp player jumping into CTL for the first time, and DOODLE and JERPI, both looking for another crack at moving into Div 1 after making it into the 1/2 playoffs last season with 3-2 records. They will be joined by ZXVYE (3-2 in 2B last season), OSCAR (1-4 in 2A), and ID KIRBY (won playoff promo v Hana). Division 2B marks the return of TETRISTIME, who hasn't played in CTL since Season 15 in 2021, and the promotion of COBRA, who won the Champions Summit twice in a row. Both Cobra and FUR OF KITTEN (promoted with a 5-0 record in Season 23) have had enough good results recently to grab the attention of the Premiere Poll participants. The div will be rounded out by DRACO (3A winner last season), ANICOMI (1-4 in 2B), and TRISKAI (1-4 in 2A).

CTL Season 25 Division 1B
5 BLUE SCUTI def. CHILLER (3-0)
Hard to outclass a guy with as much class as Scuti. Chillalla put together a good game 1 with a chonky 675k 19 transition, but ran into a hardware or rolling mechanics issue, topping out on 18 in the next two games.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1C
1 FRACTAL def. SOMALIAN (3-0)
Somalian couldn't quite handle the 19 starts here; all three games were pre-29 topouts, with games 1 and 2 ending before the 100 line mark. Fractal mullened the last game and hit 1.75 without breaking too much of a sweat, cause, y'know, he's Fractal.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1A
14 RAHMATIONS def. 21 COALBUCKET (3-0)
Rahm's survival skills were on full display here. Every game featured some sort of ludicrous dig from him -- a killscreen one on 29 and level 18 shenanigans on the next two. This allowed him to outlive Coal after level 31 and 21 hangs in the first two games and to lay on the hurt in the killscreen during game 3, forcing Coal to be aggressive and top out.
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Classic Tetris Gauntlet

I'm going to try to cover all of the captain's matches here, but I find Gauntlet to be a bit difficult to follow, so if I miss a match feel free to point me toward it and I'll include it next week.

CTG Ascension: Rogues v Grand Masters
SAM FINCH def. 13 SV (3-2)
This match didn't lack for theatrics -- SV's wins came in game 1, watching Sam top out pre-29 after one too many heroic digs, and in game 3, which was neck-and-neck until SV was able to get a couple crucial killscreen tetrises. Sam's game 2 and 4 wins were more meat-and-potatoes, keeping clean and going into 29 a level or two behind SV, which made the chasedowns manageable. Sam then turned on the jets in the killscreen phase of the decider, surviving a crazy 29 dig and crushing tetris after tetris. Sam is really fun to watch and would almost certainly be ranked if he played outside of Gauntlet more often (but we at This Week in Tetris obviously have great respect for Sam's personal time and non-Tetris pursuits).
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Coming up

The CTWC France regional will be held in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux, with quals starting Saturday morning. 

A consequential Masters Blue Bracket is coming up Friday night (0000 UTC Saturday), with 19 TRISTOP playing 8 HUFFULUFUGUS in the first round and 6 SIDNEV facing a big test against 10 THEDENGLER. If you can't wait that long, Challengers Blue is happening Wednesday (2200 UTC), with COBRA, DOODLE, TEGAMECH, and TIMMYKIM. 

No CTL supershows have been scheduled yet for this week, but I can't imagine it'll stay that way for long.