Thor Bjorn Thorlei Aackerlund (born ) is a competitive video gamer considered one of the first to go professional. As a child, he started playing computer games while waiting for a new school year to begin after having missed one due to his mother being hospitalized after a fire.Norström, Tobias.
Legenden om Thor Aackerlund
, P3 Spel, Sveriges Radio. 14 November 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2020. He couldn't afford a Nintendo Entertainment System, so he bought a

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...

but didn't have the money for any extra games, which put him on the path of playing

Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appro ...

as it was included for free. He was one of the winners of the 1990

Nintendo World Championships The Nintendo World Championships (NWC) is a nationwide video game competition series, organized by Nintendo of America at no particular interval. The first Nintendo World Championships was in 1990, touring 29 American cities, being hosted in L ...

, for which he was bestowed a Mario trophy. Soon after the competition, Camerica, a producer of unlicensed Nintendo Entertainment System games, signed a deal with Aackerlund to make him the official spokesman for their games. Aackerlund then became the poster child for the game, featured in commercials and fairs.Jersenius, Erik. "Tetris är det ultimata tidsfördrivet",

Vestmanlands Läns Tidning ''Vestmanlands Läns Tidning'' (''VLT'') is a Swedish liberal newspaper published in Västerås, Sweden. History and profile ''VLT'' was established in 1831. The paper was published in broadsheet format until 13 October 2004 when it was chang ...

. 18 April 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020. Pages 6–7. As a child, he felt pressured to play as the prize money and endorsements were financially important for his family. At the time, he was known as the only player to claim to have reached level 30 in Tetris. Aackerlund soon disappeared from the scene, but remained known as perhaps the most well-known name in Tetris.Säfström, Orvar. "Den mästerlige spelnörden", Sydsvenskan. 10 February 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2020. Page 15. He is a featured player in the 2011 documentary film '' Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters'', which covers his second effort in competitive video gaming at the 2010

Classic Tetris World Championship The Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) is a video game competition series, hosted by the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. The competition launched in 2010, during the filming of ''Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters'' to determine the world ...

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Further reading