(Web Desk) - After over 40 years of Tetris captivating – and frustrating – millions of gamers, an Oklahoma 13-year-old can now claim the honor of "beating" the classic video game.
On Tuesday, 13-year-old Willis Gibson, a block-stacking aficionado, posted a video of himself appearing to defeat the original Tetris game, gaining the attention of Tetris creator Alexey Pajtnov and company founder and chairman Henk Rogers.
After Willis' triumphant moment, during which the program essentially crashed onto a kill screen, Pajtnov and Rogers surprised the teenager during a Zoom interview with NBC News.
"Congrats for you, guy, to beat the program, which kind of existed for many years, and played by hundred millions of people," Pajtnov told the teen, who guys by the name Blue Scuti online. "That's quite an achievement I would say."
Rogers agreed with Pajtnov and commended his accomplishment. The teenager was stunned.
"This is so cool," Willis said when Rogers introduced himself. "I never thought I would be able to talk to you guys."
"He definitely would be proud. He'd tell anybody and everybody how good his kid was at Tetris," his mother, Karin Cox, told the news outlet.
Despite making it so far into the game that it crashed, Pajtnov candidly told the teenager that "his game" of Tetris is unbeatable.
"He didn't crash my game. He crashed the program which was created 40 years ago by NES engineers. So, the game is not crashable at all," Pajitnov said.
In a statement to the outlet, Tetris CEO Maya Rogers congratulated Willis for his feat, which Rogers said "defies all preconceived limits of this legendary game."
"This monumental achievement not only breaks new ground in the realm of Tetris but also ignites our anticipation for its future," Rogers said.
Willis said he plans to continue playing the game because "the competitive side of Tetris and tournaments is really cool."
He won third place at the Tetris world championship in Portland, Oregon in October and told the outlet he also holds the world record for Tetris on Gameboy.
Pajtnov gave the teenager props for those accomplishments.
"That's quite amazing. Because among those players, there are really great players, aren't they?" he said.