Tetris Titan

Plenty of us have that one online game that is our kryptonite. Whether it’s Words with Friends, Sporcle “Countries of the World” or (going old school) Minesweeper, it can distract us from that darned homework for hours on end. Kevin Shi ’15 has a game too — it’s Tetris. But unlike the rest of us, he boasts a U.S. ranking in the game and doesn’t need to devote hours to it because he’ll beat you in 30 seconds. Street sat down with Kevin to discuss all things Tetris and why rapidly dropping shapes mean so much to him.

Q: Word on the street is that you’re a ranked Tetris player ... Is that correct?

A: Somewhat. I’m not too sure about the rankings because everyone plays on their own different client, and there are some — the Korean client actually blocks foreign IP addresses so only Koreans can play on that server. So it’s hard to know where I fit exactly. There are also different skills — like there are some single-player modes and multiplayer modes, and everyone is different at them. Doing multiplayer on my client, which is called NullpoMino, I probably rank in the top 15 in the U.S.

Q: When did you start playing Tetris?

A: I started playing somewhat seriously when I was 11. But it’s kind of an on and off thing. I’d say I pretty much play every day now, though.

Q: What does it take to be a beast at Tetris?

A: Practice. And, surprisingly, some research. There are certain ways to manipulate the pieces. The thing is, the pieces most of the time are not completely random. And you have previews of the next piece. So you can make decisions based on both of those factors. And it takes some research to answer: What is the optimal thing to do here?

Q: Why do you love Tetris so much, over other games?

A: Tetris is really simple, and also the games don’t take very long. If you’re playing Tetris against someone it will probably take 30 seconds for one match. Or a minute. You don’t have to devote a lot of time to it. You can stop whenever you want. Whereas when you’re playing lots of other games, you’re invested for like an hour; it’s less convenient.

Q: What is your favorite Tetris piece, and why?

A: Probably the T piece. The T piece is special in that it has three “black pieces.” If you put all of the Tetris pieces on a checker board and you counted them, every other piece would be black-white-black-white or white-black-white-black, because they’re connected that way. But a T piece is one piece adjacent to three others so it would be like a white piece adjacent to three black pieces, which is unique.

Q: Do you think Tetris is good for the brain? Does it help you in any other areas of your life?

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A: I think all games can help develop skills that can be applied to other areas. Playing Tetris a lot has actually improved my knowledge of coding and math. On a simpler level, I believe playing Tetris forces people to think on their feet and constantly analyze risk versus reward.

Q: Are you a part of any sort of Tetris community?

A: Yes, there is one online. It’s called Hard Drop. People discuss things on message boards, they host tournaments, and that’s also the database that has a lot of Tetris knowledge on it.

Q: Are we non-Tetris experts missing out on a lot of cool Tetris lingo?

A: Kind of, yes. There are certain openings you can do given the certain number of pieces, and I’ve always been amazed at how ridiculous the names for them are. There’s stuff like king’s cross, abyss opening, abyss into trinity opening. It’s pretty funny, actually.

Q: Do you ever dream about Tetris scenarios after playing for a while?

A: Not really. Sometimes I end up playing Tetris in my head while fully conscious, though. You don’t really have to be that clever because, again, the pieces aren’t all random. You get every single type of piece before you can get them again, so you have to get all seven pieces once, and then you can get all seven pieces again. The pieces come in a random order, but that’s how it is. It’s like pseudo-random.

Q: Any advice for aspiring ranked Tetris players?

A: Practice often. And make sure to do some research as to what the client you’re playing allows, and take advantage of that.

Interview conducted, condensed and edited by Sara Wallace.