Jonas Neubauer grabs the top spot at 8th annual Classic Tetris World Championships

PORTLAND, Oct. 22, 2017 – After two days of intense Tetris battles by more than 100 players from around the world, 7-time champion Jonas Neubauer, of Redondo Beach, CA, claimed the top of the leaderboard at the 8th annual Classic Tetris® World Championship (CTWC), held this weekend at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo at the Oregon Convention Center.

CTWC is the ultimate pursuit for Tetris champ bragging rights. Created by avid fans of the 1989 Nintendo Entertainment System™ (NES) version of the game, CTWC has become a can’t miss event for the most skilled Tetris players who come from across the United States, and as far as Europe, Australia and Asia, for a chance to compete against fellow Tetris players, and many long-earned rivals, in round after round of Tetris on the original NES. This year’s competitors included returning champions Jonas Neubauer (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016) and Harry Hong (2014), European champion Jani Herlevi, Japanese Tetris Grand Master Koryan, and many other players featured in the award-winning documentary Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters.

The event consisted of two days of qualifying rounds and a final 32-bracket seeded tournament, which took place today and was kicked off by Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris, who addressed the competitors and crowd in a personal video message. Overall, the event drew more than 4,600 spectators onsite and online.

As the winner, Neubauer was awarded $1,000 in prize money and the coveted CTWC trophy. Second place winner, Alex Kerr, of Sunnyvale, CA, was awarded $500.