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The Sixth Tetris Grand Master Has Been Crowned

The Sixth Tetris Grand Master Has Been Crowned

Getting a Grand Master ranking in the 2005 arcade game Tetris The Grand Master 3 Terror Instinct is one of the hardest things you can do in gaming. In fact, it’s so hard to do, only five people in the world had attained the ranking until recently when the sixth, Kevin Birrell, attained his Grand Master badge of honor.

You may remember Kevin from his Tetris the Grand Master 3 Terror Instinct showcase at AGDQ this year. Kevin is the first player from the USA to attain the Grand Master ranking, and it wasn’t an easy feat. In fact, he is the first person outside of Japan to earn the rating at all, although he has said that he doesn’t like dividing accomplishments by location, and dislikes being called the first “westerner” Grand Master .

Playing on Master Mode, which essentially starts you at pieces instantly dropping and increases your speed level every time you drop a piece, is hard enough. Eventually the amount of time that you have before a piece locks in place gets shorter and shorter. The game expects you to make very few mistakes, and clear your lines mostly with Tetrises , i.e. long blocks that clear four lines at once. You absolutely MUST get Tetrises every 100 levels of the speed in order to qualify for the rank below Grand Master , MM. You must get several MM rankings in a row while performing to GM grade in order to be able to quality for the Grand Master Promotional Exam . Then in the GM promotional exam, you need to play almost perfectly, getting mostly Tetrises , in order to unlock the secret staff roll stage, where the block are invisible, and THEN you have to get several Tetrises without dying. If you manage to do this while also exhausting all the possibilities for all the grades underneath you, THEN you can become a Grand Master .

So… yeah… it’s hard.

The Sixth Tetris Grand Master Has Been Crowned

That being said, Kevin Managed to do it, and he actually managed to capture it on camera via his stream the other day. He had been playing the game since it first came out and yet had only even been able to play the promotional exam six times. After having cleared the exam, he invited anyone who was watching the exam on his stream to come out with him, get drinks, and celebrate. A truly momentous occasion.

So what’s next? Well there is an even HARDER mode in TGM3 called Shirase mode, which is nigh impossible and few people have even ever cleared it, so he can always move on to that. Kevin has already attained the highest grade S13, but there are higher levels to explore, with even more absurd speeds. He also talked about possibly speedrunning GM ranks now, which might be something we see at the next AGDQ. But perhaps what is most dangerous is the threat of being demoted. In TGM3 there is always a risk to be given a demotion if you don’t consistently perform up to your rank. So every run he does from this point on is a minefield that might possibly strip his coveted GM rank away from him.

Still, this is an incredible occasion for Kevin and Tetris players everywhere. The question, of course, is what can top this? I guess we will have to wait for the next big Tetris arcade release to see.

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