This Week in Tetris

There are twenty-some-odd pollsters who contribute to the Premiere Poll, and many of them have very different ways of looking at the game. One of these rankers is Catsugiri, who was kind enough to share her thoughts and write a blurb for each player presented below. Cat watches a lot of Tetris and her rankings are saucier than average, so her explanations are a great read. Numbers in parentheses refer to the ( Premiere Poll ranking | Cat's rankings) for June. NR stands for "Not Ranked". If you're a pollster and want to share your reasoning on the blog (or even if you aren't and just want to get your opinion out there!), reach out on our Discord within the next day or two. 1 ALEX THACH (1 | 1) I honestly don’t think there really should be any debate about putting Alex at number one. He’s won CTWC, he’s won CTM many months in a row, he’s gotten literally every single world record, and even just watching him play, it seems indubitable that he out of everyone dese...

It feels like everything and nothing happened this month. Many of these players only played one or two matches in June, but they were the most important matches they'll play all year. It also serves as a natural endpoint for players who want to take a short- or long-term break, and a natural jumping off point for players who want to get back in the scene. Numbers in parentheses refer to the ( Premiere Poll ranking | my ranking ) for June. NR stands for "Not Ranked". Want to argue about this? Join our Discord ! 1 ALEX THACH (1 | 1) The fact that Alex T became the seventh person to lift the CTWC trophy is one thing, but he's been so dominant lately that the CTWC organizers had a kiddie pool and can of parmesan hidden away for when the moment came. He should buy his mom something nice with the prize money for cleaning up after him. 2 DOG (3 | 4) This year's runner-up Dog has been to the semifinals in five consecutive Classic Tetris World Championships. Only one ot...

CTWC is the biggest Tetris event of the year, and Round 0 is a great chance to showcase some very good players and longtime community fixtures who don't appear so often in the CTM Masters Event or CTL Div 1. Some underqualing ranked players also appear and are given a chance to warm up a bit before compeitition gets stiffer. One of the major storylines during this CTWC is that tapping still more competitive of a playstyle than many people think, and the ability of top tappers was on full display here. The numbers next to the players are their June 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. As always, let me know if you found this entertaining or useful, or if there's anything else you'd like to see. If you'd like updates as I'm writing each week's TWiT, want to talk or argue about anything written here...

CTWC starts tomorrow. I'm going to board a plane in a few hours to Southern California, where I'll get to see some of the best players in the world practice their craft. After the recent spate of media coverage kicked off by Scuti's game crash, more eyes will be on the competition than ever before. I told my waiter at a pizza place the other day that I was going to a Tetris tournament and he asked me if I rolled. It's going to be big. The field to getting the trophy is wide-open. Alex T and Blue Scuti certainly have momentum going in, but at least half a dozen other players could knock them out without it being considered an upset, and CTWC has a long history of players coming out of nowhere and making Cinderella runs. Whether you're there in person or hanging out in Twitch chat online, it'll be an experience like no other. The numbers next to the players are their June Premiere Poll rankings, not their tournament seeds. Scores in the tables are given in thou...