This Week in Tetris: May 6-13

I'm not sure how there are so many classic matches every week in Classic Tetris. Maybe we should've known, since "classic" is there in the name. In any case, there's a lot to talk about.

Quick housekeeping note: I'm going to change it so that the weeks covered in this column start on Tuesday and end on Monday, with the post coming out on Wednesday (or, in hopefully rare cases, Thursday). This will give me an extra day to catch up on the weekend's action. Today's post covers 8 days for that reason (and also includes some matches from May 5 that were omitted for deadline reasons). The numbers next to the players are their May Premiere Poll rankings, not their tournament seeds. Scores in the tables are given in thousands; an (i) or (a) next to a score indicates that the topout was intentional or aggressive, respectively.

CTWC Motor City Mayhem

The last regional before CTWC happened in the Detroit burbs this past weekend, and a good number of top rollers made the trip to see how well they play in front of a crowd. A shoutout to WORLDOBLOCKS is merited, who finished fourth place in an intimidating field.

CTWC Motor City Mayhem Lower Bracket Round 3, May 11, 2024
HYDRANTDUDE def. 9 HUFFULUFUGUS (2-0)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2
HYDRANTDUDE	701 (i)	494
HUFFULUFUGUS	670	463

Huff hasn't topped out before killscreen once in CTM this year, but pre-29 play was giving him fits in person. Huff topped out in post twice in his match against Wallbant and got sent down to the very beginning of the loser's bracket, where he had to fight through Jedi Evan and DaAsiann to set up a match against Hydrant, who had lost to Coal in the winner's bracket semifinals. Huff was able to recover from a misdrop-filled first half of 18 to pull 70k ahead of Hydrant by transition, but while he was able to get a clutch 5-tap to make it through level 20, he couldn't replicate the feat on 23 and let Hydrant take the easy chasedown. Neither player could hit 500k on the second game; Huff had a few lines in hand and might've had the pace lead, but both of them couldn't hit their taps and misshifted at around the same time chronologically, and Hydrant advanced with the real-time score lead.
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CTWC Motor City Mayhem Upper Bracket Finals, May 11, 2024
21 COALBUCKET def. WALLBANT (3-0)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3
COALBUCKET	798 (i)	1,026 (i)	1,131
WALLBANT	611	866	706

A big part of Coal's game, and one that we only get to see during in-person tournaments, is his endurance over a long day of Tetris. Coal's mid-500 transitions at the 19 transition gave him command of both games, while Wallbant suffered a level 24 topout in game 1 and topped out in level 29 on the second after seeing big digs eat up a big chunk of his pace in post. Level 18 on the last game threw tough RNG at the players, and though Wallbant transitioned 75k up with a 481, he slogged through a nightmarish dig that saw him add less than 200k to his score before hitting killscreen. Coal was able to keep it clean long enough to develop a big lead and never look back, showing off his killscreen play after shaking off Wallbant on level 31.
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CTWC Motor City Mayhem Lower Bracket Finals, May 11, 2024
WALLBANT def. HYDRANTDUDE (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
WALLBANT	688 (i)	533	59 (i)	262 (i)
HYDRANTDUDE	685	563 (i)	28	242

Nothing in this match made it past level 23 as both players were trying to overcome fatigue. Hydrant was able to get to a 600k transition in game 1, but a series of misdrops while trying to clear out a delayed burn ended it for him. Both players were off to a rough start in game 2, but Wallbant righted the ship first and went into transition 50k up, though his ability to roll places to the left took flight of him early in post and allowed Hydrant to even it up. Early topouts from Hydrant in the next two sent Wallbant to a grand finals rematch against Coal.
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CTWC Motor City Mayhem Grand Finals, May 11, 2024
21 COALBUCKET def. WALLBANT (3-2)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
COALBUCKET	756 (i)	1,440	386	546	265 (i)
HYDRANTDUDE	751	1,040	485 (i)	549 (i)	246

Coal looked like he was going to sweep Wallbant again after the first two. In game 1, Wallbant got some impressive placements in but wasn't quite able to dig out after a dirty setup, and in game 2, Coal put on a show. His aggression paid off in the form of a 634 transition, and while Wallbant stayed within striking distance and was only a couple tetrises behind when he topped out on level 30, Coal put on a crowd-pleasing mullen that included a dirty tetris and a T-spin solve on his way to a 1.4. Coal gave away the next two, succumbing after getting into repeated 18 digs in game 3 and almost but not quite getting himself out of trouble in game 4's middle third. Wallbant ended up topping out in the decider after approaching a dig a bit too aggressively midway through 18, and though Coal's future was also looking iffy, his nine thousand point lead was enough to take the game, the set, and the tournament. Coal's regional win after a strong showing in the Midwest tournament means his name is going one to be feared in Midwest regional events for the foreseeable future.
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Classic Tetris Monthly

The Red Masters bracket came early this month. Every match was a banger, but the last one was particularly memorable. Two more Masters brackets are coming this weekend, and the third will be the weekend after, and if they're even half as hard-hitting, we're going to be in for it.

Classic Tetris Monthly May 2024 Masters Round 1 (Red Bracket), May 13, 2024
1 FRACTAL def. 12 TRISTOP (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
FRACTAL	1,304 (i)	865	1,378 (i)	1,389
TRISTOP	1,194	979 (i)	1,133	1,271

Fractal got off into an early lead in game 1 of set 1 of the May Masters tournament, but Tristop was rolling in post, and both players went into killscreen with 1.1's. Tristop played clean on killscreen and was able to get one tetris, but hung the bar on the second, giving Fractal the 1-0 lead. Fractal got into a mess early in game 2, and though he was eventually able to claw back Tristop's resulting 80k lead as Tristop survived scary moment after scary moment, Fractal got hung a J late in post and let Tristop tie it up. Fractal got it together and 1.1'ed in 28 in the next game, over 100k ahead of Tristop. Tristop was able to tack on a killscreen tetris, but barely made it over the score Fractal had when his stream froze; Fractal came back with a 1.3 when his internet recovered. Tristop ran into several smallish digs, and as a result, he had around the same score as Fractal but was a full level ahead. He pushed his maxout into 29 up to a 1.27 to close the gap while Fractal got out of a scary dig, but lost control on 32, and Fractal completed the chasedown with a single tetris.
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Classic Tetris Monthly May 2024 Masters Round 1 (Red Bracket), May 13, 2024
7 SIDNEV def. 8 DANV (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
SIDNEV	1,431	1,354	1,866	912 (i)
DANV	1,467	1,271	1,326	676

This set started off with a big DanV game, going up by 150k as Sidnev struggled to stay clean in 18 and carrying the lead into 29 with a 1.1. Both players were cooking on the killscreen until DanV topped out with an E-score still over 100k up, but he waited until the beginning of level 36 to do it, leaving Sidnev very little room to maneuver. She made up all but 55k by the beginning of 37, but misdropped soon afterward, and topped out after not having the luxury to burn it out fully. DanV had another big lead going on game 2, securing the back-to-back 1.1 into killscreen while Sidnev had a hard time staying clean in post, but was able to complete the big chasedown after Dan's 31 topout. That was the last of Sidnev's slow starts, though, and though DanV was able to get his third pre-29 1.1 in a row, Sidnev went absolutely bananas. She started post-post with a 1.23, and though she had to work through a scary dig through 29 and 30, she got out of it and never looked back, getting all the way up to 1.8 on the mullen. Dan couldn't stay clean in post in game 4 and gave up the ghost after a bad misshift up high, but other than this early top, he had a great set, but you can only do so much to keep up with Sidnev when she's been unleashed.
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Classic Tetris Monthly May 2024 Masters Round 1 (Red Bracket), May 13, 2024
7 SIDNEV def. 1 FRACTAL (3-2)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
SIDNEV	1,835	187 (i)	566	1,429	1,744
FRACTAL	1,546	75	704 (i)	1,437	1,614

Another early matchup between these two players becomes another all-timer. Both players started off with high 1.2s into 29 and just pouring it on afterward, but Fractal lost control with an F score on 35 and watched Sidnev get a five-high dirty into a 1.8 on 39. An unexpected gift exchange happened over the next two games -- Fractal twenty lines in after not building out his left, Sidnev after a high-up hole wouldn't burn out early in post. In game 4, both players survived an absurd dig 60 lines in, and Sidnev ended up going into 29 almost 100k up after an uncharacteristically diggy game for Fractal. Fractal started slowly closing the lead after taking care of an early killscreen dig despite Sidnev draining tetris after tetris herself, and by the time she suffered a series of misdrops and topped out on 26 with a 1.4, Fractal was a 35k back and had 17 lines to score it, but he suffered a misdrop of a J himself. Despite running into a dig, he was able to secure enough doubles and triples to make up the gap and force a decider. And, despite emotions running high, both players played phenomenally in game five. Sidnev's 18 was near-flawless, and she went into 19 50k up. Both players added almost another 600k in post, transitioning with double 1.2's. And, though Fractal kept scoring tetris after tetris, Sidnev was somehow better, going up 100k despite having ten lines in hand. She rolled over on 35 and kept going. And, though Sidnev dropped a bar and topped out on 37, and though Fractal would get his own rollover, the train had already left the station.
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Classic Tetris League

We're two thirds of the way through the season, and nothing is settled. 1B is a wide-open four-way race, and while 1A and 1C seem like they're going to come down to two top players duking it out (Alex and Andy in 1A, Fractal and Dog in 1C), this week's results show that conventional wisdom can be turned on its head very quickly. There's uncertainty at the bottom of every div, too; though 1A lost its auto-relegation spot from Timmykim dropping, no one's been eliminated yet, and a few players need to be careful that they're not going to be sucked into the fray. King tends to save the biggest matches for the end of the season, and we're just about there. CTL Season 25 Division 2B, May 8, 2024
FUR OF KITTEN def. 25 COBRA (3-0)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3
FUR OF KITTEN	1,300	1,184	1,037
COBRA	1,102	1,010	577

Kitten's 1.79 PB while warming up presaged the massive set that was to come for him. Game 1 led off with a double-maxout into killscreen with Cobra 50k up, and while Cobra was able to stretch the lead with some triples, he ended up going down during level 31. Kitten decided to complete the chasedown the spicy way with a tetris and continued to mullen to a 1.3. Kitten's aggression paid off in game 2, as he went 70k up in killscreen and got a crazy-high dirty tetris in post to keep his lead around the high 5-figures. Cobra stayed alive in the killscreen just long enough to get a tetris and a maxout, but Kitten can't be denied, though the mullen fizzled out to "only" a 1.18. Cobra ran into the dreaded covered-well-and-misdrop combo and topped out early in game 3, but other than that, he didn't play badly at all. Kitten's just taking it to another level.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1A, May 5, 2024
4 PIXELANDY def. TIMMYKIM (3-0)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3
PIXELANDY	1,250	1,249	1,442
TIMMYKIM	1,152	1,180	1,216

Timmykim had a great set -- all three games made it transition with at least a maxout, and he was able to make good killscreen runs with multiple tetrises in the last two games. Against most other opponents, he would've gotten at least a few points if not a set to help him out in the standings table, but unfortunately, Andy isn't like most opponents.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1A, May 5, 2024
21 COALBUCKET def. TIMMYKIM (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
COALBUCKET	946	1,125	300 (i)	773 (i)
TIMMYKIM	1,153	1,092	201	770

Timmykim continued playing well for the first two games of his next set. Coal had a lot of lines in pocket in relatively low-scoring game 1, but Timmykim handled it well, laying on an extra 130k in killscreen before Coal hit 29 too early and topped out. Both players had a solid, back-and-forth game 2 until they hit 29 like bugs hitting a windshield and Coal took it by around a Tetris. Timmykim caught the early topout bug afterward, though, suffering through 73 lines in game 3 before giving up the ghost and crashing early in post in game 4 after hanging pieces on a high right side.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1C, May 5, 2024
11 THEDENGLER def. 1 FRACTAL (3-2)

(330 DKS)	1: Lv 18	2: Lv 19	3: Lv 19	4: Lv 19	5: Lv 18
THEDENGLER	816	629 (i)	1,268	1,219	1,059 (i)
FRACTAL	1,013 (i)	375	1,412	1,203	1,053

Whoa. The first game started off with both players giving a clinic on adjustments in 18, but a series of bad misdrops and long droughts slowed both players down considerably in post, with Noah catching the worst of it and topping out on 27. The next three games were all 19 starts. Fractal didn't quite seem himself in game two, unable to keep his board clean and accommodating and was finally put out of his misery after 123 lines down big. It was Noah's turn to not get off to a great start in game 3, but he stayed alive, managed droughts well, and chipped away at the lead. Both players went into 29 with fairly low scores, and in the early part of killscreen play, Noah was even able to catch up. Eventually, though, Noah got caught in a dig and ran out of runway as Fractal kept Tetrising, letting Fractal go up 2-1. Game 4 was extremely close the whole way through despite Noah surviving some scary moments, but Fractal couldn't get a bar over to the left on level 31, which would've been fine on its own, but the next four or five pieces didn't go where they wanted either; Noah wasn't long for this world, either, but ended up topping out less than a tetris ahead. Things were slowed back down in the decider, where both players had kinda a gross 18. Fractal survived a super-scary line misdrop and got to the 19 transition around 70k up and held onto that lead up until killscreen. Immediately after the 29 transition, though, Fractal misfliped an L and limped along for the next 30 lines but never really found his footing again. Noah played conservatively and completed a short chasedown to take an upset that he's unlikely to forget anytime soon.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1B, May 7, 2024
5 GERALD FREEMAN def. TUGI (3-0)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3
GERALD FREEMAN	414 (i)	1,091 (i)	990 (i)
TUGI	411	936	973

Despite the sweep, Gerald will be glad to put this one behind him. Game 2 was solid for the Mega Masters finalist, with a 1.1 into killscreen, but the other two games where characterized by misdrops and long digs. He was saved by Tugi's growing pains as he continues to develop as a roller, failing to get out of a high-up dig on level 18 in the first game and going into 29 too high to do much of anything in the next two. One positive Gerald can take away, though: he bent but never broke, keeping his games alive long enough to outlast his opponent.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1C, May 7, 2024
10 MYLES def. TEGAMECH (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
MYLES	756	778 (i)	1,275	1,500
TEGAMECH	981	712	920	508

Myles took a game to warm up, as repeatedly he couldn't get pieces over in post and topped out on 27, but once his motor was humming, it was hard for Tega to keep pace. Tega had a nice 18 on game 2 but couldn't quite get through the transition clean enough to keep going, and though he made it deeper in game 3, a series of misshift-induced droughts and a great pace game from Myles meant he was 250k behind by the time he topped out at the killscreen transition. Myles took the set once Tega couldn't manage a center well in post and mullened his way to a 1.5.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1B, May 8, 2024
7 SIDNEV def. 6 BLUE SCUTI (3-1)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4
SIDNEV	1,526 (i)	1,305	1,511	1,072
BLUE SCUTI	1,333	1,196	1,766	829

Big statement win for Sidnev. Game 1 had both players going into 29 with 1.1's despite some irksome RNG, and while Sidnev started killscreen play with a very slim lead, she ratcheted it up afterward, going up by 200k by mid-post-post and protecting her lead until her level 37 topout, not leaving Scuti with any room to chase it down. Both players were bogged down on 19 play in game 2, where Sidnev emerged with the points lead despite seeming like she was in the longer digs, and she outsurvived Scuti's bar hang on level 32 to go up 2-0. Scuti wasn't going to go down that easy, though. In game 3, both players built their scores up quickly off a 1.1 base in the first half of killscreen play, but while Sidnev got caught in a dig later on, Scuti went supernova, putting up a 1.7 in the process. Game 4 had a weirdly hard post sequence, with both players having to navigate long droughts and weird digs, but despite having a level in hand and having some idea what he was up against, Scuti spun out on Level 24 to give Sidnev the set.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1C, May 8, 2024
1 FRACTAL def. TEGAMECH (3-1)

(330 DKS)	1: Lv 19	2: Lv 19	3: Lv 18	4: Lv 18
FRACTAL	162	790 (i)	613 (i)	937
TEGAMECH	166 (i)	658	429	686

The first two games started off on 19, and while Fractal couldn't adjust to the AdamIrish Leprechaun Voice Experience and topped out very early on game 1, he was able to overcome his roommates rearranging all of the furniture in his dorm room while he was playing game 2. Tegamech wasn't able to push any game past the early part of post, despite bringing out the DAS and going up big on 18 in game 4.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1C, May 8, 2024
3 DOG def. TEGAMECH (3-0)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3
DOG	1,164 (i)	123 (i)	1,630
TEGAMECH	881	76	1,239

Tega topped out very early in game 2 but was able to push the other two to killscreen. He suffered through post on the first game, down big with an 881 into 29, but game 3 was fire for him, going into killscreen two thousand short of the 1.2 and tacking on a killscreen tetris to set a new comp PB. Meanwhile, Dog was doing Dog things, hitting the maxout on level 25 on his way to a rollover despite digging late in post and topping out on 36.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1A, May 8, 2024
2 ALEX THACH def. PEEKAYRIC (3-0)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3
ALEX THACH	638 (i)	1,283	758 (a)
PEEKAYRIC	529	1,085	680

Peek's best game was the second, transitioning with a 600k and making it to level 30 half a tetris off of a 1.1; against a lot of Div 1 players, that would've been good enough for the point. He was able to keep pace with Alex through all three games, but ultimately ratchet up the aggression in post enough to keep up with the world record holder without topping out.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1C, May 11, 2024
1 FRACTAL def. NEK0 (3-2)

(330 DKS)	1: Lv 19	2: Lv 19	3: Lv 18	4: Lv 18	5: Lv 18
FRACTAL	1,136	108 (i)	26	1,229	1,425
NEK0	1,206	48	71 (i)	1,212	1,377

What a crazy set. The 19-start game 1 found Fractal keep getting into small cleanups and finding himself 110k behind Neko when the latter topped out, and even though Fractal had lines in hand, he couldn't get pieces to build out a left, and a misdropped T doomed his chasedown attempt. The next two games were a very early gift exchange, in which each player had an early mistake (a 19-start bar hang for Neko, a J misrotation for Fractal) and was punished mercilessly by RNG for it. Both players weathered a rough 18 in game 4 and Neko was able to nickel-and-dime has way into big lead at transition, and though Neko tacked on another 100k before a 32 topout, Fractal wasn't about to let himself fail two chasedowns and got it done with ten or so lines to spare. The finale started off with Fractal getting a 50k lead in 18 and carrying it into 29 as both players racked up 600k in post. Fractal extended this lead to 120k before his hole developed a hole six lines up that he couldn't dig out of on Level 35. Neko then immediately burned his stack down with triples and set up column 9, but the bar simply wouldn't come, and he kept getting exactly the piece that would make his stack worse. Despite an incredible effort where he made moves that some of the top 10 players would be envious of, he ran out of room, topping out 75k down 2 lines from the DKS. There were several points in which, if a bar came a piece or two sooner, Neko would've taken down the champ. He played lights-out.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1C, May 11, 2024
18 PORTAL def. 3 DOG (3-2)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
PORTAL	1,419	4	197	1,271	1,430
DOG	1,288	319 (i)	276 (i)	1,071	1,418

A huge upset and an unbelievable set to continue a crazy day of CTL Tetris. Game 1 started off great for both players, with 600k 18 scores and going into killscreen with 1.1's, but while Dog had issues keeping clean after 29, Portal didn't, staying unbelievably clean and scoring tetris after tetris until both players topped out at around the same time around the 280 line mark. Games 2 and 3 were Dog's wins, and they both came in the form of early topouts from Portal; one of them came when he blocked his well five lines in, the other when he couldn't deal with a chasm in the center of his board around line 50. Despite geting off to a bit of a scary start in line 4, Portal was able to keep clean while Dog couldn't recover from a mid-18 dig. Portal's lead only grew in post, going into the killscreen with a 1.2 over 200k ahead of Dog. It looked like Dog was going to catch up when Portal couldn't get himself in scoring position during the killscreen, but a blocked well and a square misshift combined to force Dog to top out incredibly quickly. Both players survived 18 in the decider, though only just in Portal's case, and though the middle third was a bit better, both players went into the killscreen with 900ks; Portal was 60k ahead but Dog had plenty of lines in hand. Portal showed he's got the stuff yet again, though, keeping clean and slamming down tetris after tetris. He had a scary dig in level 35, but was able to survive to take two more huge tetrises before hitting 39. In the meantime, Dog had, without exaggeration, one of the greatest digs in competitive Tetris history after not getting a bar over on 33, but he couldn't get clean again until 36, and ended up with 17 lines to chase down 135k after Portal's topout. He got one of the Tetrises he needed, but a drought and a T misdrop ate up a good chunk of his remaining lines left. He was able to set up for one tetris, but he needed two, and topped out on 39 half a Tetris short. This is the biggest win of Portal's career, and he earned every inch of it.
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CTL Season 25 Division 1B, May 11, 2024
8 DANV def. 16 SODIUM (3-2)

Lv 18 (330 DKS)	1	2	3	4	5
DANV	1,204	307	1,244	1,343	1,271 (i)
SODIUM	1,181	391 (i)	1,257	1,234	1,226

Excepting DanV's early topout on game 2, the pre-29 consistency of these players was remarkable. If we're allowed to cheat and round Sodium's game 1 1.095 into killscreen up a bit, both players hit that mark with a 1.1 in all four of the other games. DanV carried a 50k lead into killscreen in game 1 and had expanded it by a tetris or so before hanging a bar on level 31, but Sodium had a bar hang of his own before completing the chasedown. After DanV could only cheat death so many times and topped out early on game 2, he made up for it on game 3 with an incredible post to take a 100k lead into 29. He couldn't handle the speed change and didn't last a whole lot longer, though, and Sodicum had all the time in the world to complete a safe chasedown. Game four saw both players trying to be cautious until they both misdropped an S at around the same time on 32; while Sodium topped out, DanV survived with a clutch dig and forced a decider. Game five's margin was razor-thin for much of pre-killscreen play, but DanV was able to squeeze out an extra killscreen tetris and have a slight lead when Sodium fell on 32 again.
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