Alex Thach

Alex Thach (born November 7, 2008), known online as TetrisAlexT or Alex T, is an American classic ''Tetris'' player. He is best known for his victory in the 2024 Classic Tetris World Championships (CTWC), becoming the first person to get a score of over 10 million points, and a number of other smaller records achieved on both original and modified game cartridges which prevent crashes late game.

Thach entered the competitive ''Tetris'' scene in 2020 at 11 years old. He originally found success using the " hypertapping" technique of playing but in 2022 adopted the more competitive " rolling" technique as competition improved. Using the new technique, Thach broke multiple records in a more than hour-long game livestreamed on March 12, 2024, where he achieved the highest level reached in one game and a score of more than 10 million, also winning a $2,400 bounty made by the ''Tetris'' community for being the first to do so. On June 9, 2024, Thach won the Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) after beating two-time former champion Michael Artiaga ("DogPlayingTetris"). Thach is also known for his unique and signature victory celebration of dumping Parmesan cheese on his head.

Tetris career

Thach was born on November 7, 2008, and is of Vietnamese descent. He entered the competitive ''Tetris'' scene at 11 years old in 2020, the same year becoming the youngest player to ever maxout out the game's score counter at 999,999 points. On June 2, 2021, Thach further became the first player to reach level 41. This was Thach's last major achievement before he adopted a playing technique called " rolling", as his " hypertapping" playstyle was becoming obsolete among top players. Thach had switched to rolling full time to compete in the 2022 Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC), but performed worse than expected. In the April 2023 Classic Tetris Monthly (CTM) Masters Event, Thach won his first major competition since adopting the rolling technique.

On March 11, 2024, Thach uploaded a photo on Discord of a game with a score of 9,903,960 points, which would have beaten the previous high score record if it had been recorded. On March 12, 2024, Thach followed this up by livestreaming a ''Tetris'' game lasting slightly over an hour, in which he broke the records for highest level and highest score reached at 235 and 16,248,080 respectively. This game was played on a modified game cartridge which suppresses crashes that normally occur in later levels of the game and won Thach a $2,600 prize created by the ''Tetris'' community for the first person to reach a score of 10 million points. Thach's score was also recognized by Guinness World Record for the NES version of Tetris, which far surpassed the previous record of 8,952,432 points set by Andrew Artiaga ("PixelAndy") on January 11 earlier in the year.

On April 2, 2024, while on a video call with a number of top ''Tetris'' players including Justin Yu ("fractal161"), Thach broke the original game cartridge records for highest score reached and latest game crash achieved, simultaneously becoming the fourth person to ever " beat the game" by triggering a killscreen. He also became the first to trigger a rare visual glitch nicknamed "summoning satan" by the community after clearing a single line of blocks on a level where doing so has a 70% chance of crashing the game. On April 15, 2024, Thach again broke the record for highest score reached on a modified game cartridge after scoring 16,700,760 points,, and currently maintains this record. On June 9, 2024, Thach beat two-time previous champion Michael Artiaga ("DogPlayingTetris") to earn his first Classic Tetris World Championship title. The golden J-Piece trophy was given to Thach's mother to give to Thach, instead of being awarded by the event's host.

Playing style

Thach began playing NES ''Tetris'' in 2020 using " hypertapping", a technique where the player rapidly vibrates their arm to press the buttons on the controller. The technique was first popularized by Joseph Saelee in his winning 2018 CTWC tournament. Thach found much of his early success with this technique, using it to reach level 41 for the first time in 2021. Shortly after winning the January 2022 CTM Masters Event, however, Thach adopted a new technique created by fellow ''Tetris'' player Christopher Martinez ("Cheez") before the 2020 CTWC called " rolling", which involves rolling the back of the controller with all five fingers to position the game pieces more quickly. Much of Thach's recent success has come since adopting and mastering this technique, including his recent world records and world championship win.

In terms of attitude while playing, Thach often makes jokes and uses comedic body language, which he has admitted helps soothe his nerves when getting through difficult levels of the game. Thach has also become well-known for destroying his setup and dumping various odd items on his head to celebrate victories, most notably Parmesan cheese. This became his signature victory celebration after he poured the cheese over his head to celebrate beating multiple records in his March 12, 2024, livestream. He continued the tradition after winning the 2024 CTWC, where an inflatable pool was brought out to collect the cheese as he was doused in it by his mother and the hosts of the tournament.

Competitive record

Below is a table of the ''Tetris'' tournaments Thach participated in and their outcomes. It should be noted the table is incomplete, as results on the CTM website prior to February 2022 only list the names of the winner and the runner-up.

Citations

References

Notelist

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thach, Alex
2008 births
American children
American esports players
American people of Vietnamese descent
American YouTubers
Gaming YouTubers
Living people
Tetris (NES video game) players