How Gen Z is pushing NES Tetris to its limits

engadget.com:

In the fall of 2018, tucked away in a side hall at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, seven-time Classic Tetris World Champion (CTWC), Jonas Neubauer, found himself against the ropes. 37-year-old Neubauer, the Tony Hawk of Tetris, was two games down to teenage rookie Joseph Saelee. To stage a comeback, he now had to win three games in a row, a monumental task that would require every last drop of focus.

As his third game came to an unsuccessful end, Neubauer’s strained expression appeared to dissolve from frustration to the realization that his long reign as champion could be over. Neubauer may have lost in three straight games to 16-year-old Saelee, but the real defeat – for the Tetris old guard at least – was the arrival of a new era for the world’s most played game. An era that would upend over 30 years of convention and redefine, quite literally, how the game is played.

Saelee’s disruptive victory, or one like it, was inevitable. Neubauer played Tetris just like you or I do – holding down the D-pad to move the pieces (a technique called “delayed auto shift/DAS” in competitive Tetris lingo). He just happened to do it with a level of skill beyond almost anyone else. Saelee played differently. He used a style called “hypertapping” – a contorted mix of fingers and thumbs designed to sidestep the game’s built-in speed limit – and it allows you to move pieces much faster than DAS.

Saelee didn’t invent the technique, but he coupled it with enough skill to secure his victory over Neubauer and, with it, would kick start its popularity in competitive play. “So 2018, it was just Joseph [tapping]. 2019, honestly, it still hadn't quite taken over yet.“ Adam Cornelius, CTWC Co-founder told Engadget. “2020 was the year that it totally