:Justin Yu
{{Short description|Tetris player from Texas}}
{{good article}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox Pro Gaming player
| ID = Fractal161
| image = Justin Yu CTWC 2023.jpg
| alt = Yu smiling while holding up a golden J-Piece trophy and a blue penguin squishmallow
| caption = Yu after winning the 2023 Classic Tetris World Championship
| name = Justin Yu
| birth_date = {{Birth based on age as of date|22|2023|11|03}}{{efn|name=DOB|While no exact date is given, Yu was 22 years old on November 3, 2023.}}
| games = Classic Tetris
| career_start = {{circa|2016}}
| highlights = {{blist
|CTWC champion (2023)
|CTWC runner-up (2022)
|2nd person to "beat" Tetris (2024)}}
}}
Justin Yu, known online as Fractal161, is an American classic Tetris player from Dallas, Texas. He is best known for his victory in the 2023 Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC), for becoming the second person to "beat the game", and first to achieve its earliest possible game crash on January 3, 2024.
Beginning to play Tetris around 2016, Yu entered the competitive scene around 2019, and was one of the first players to fully adopt a new and faster playing style called "rolling". Through repeated practice and by studying the game's programming assembly, Yu finished as the runner-up in the 2022 CTWC and won the 2023 CTWC while also a Junior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After winning the CTWC, Yu focused on becoming the first person to "beat" Tetris. While working towards the achievement, Yu became the first to reach the late-game glitched color levels before the game crash, but was beat to his end goal by fellow competitive Tetris player Willis Gibson (known online as "Blue Scuti") on December 21, 2023. A few weeks later, Yu became the first player achieve the earliest possible game crash. He has stated his desire to one day run Tetris websites and tournaments when he leaves the competitive scene.
Personal life and education
Yu is from Dallas, Texas.{{cite web |last1=Halpern |first1=Jane |title=MIT's Justin Yu wins Classic Tetris World Championship |url=https://news.mit.edu/2023/justin-yu-wins-tetris-world-championship-1027 |work=MIT News |date=October 27, 2023 |access-date=January 12, 2024}}{{cite web |last1=Ismael |first1=Russel |last2=Nix |first2=Josh |title=Putting the pieces together |url=https://thetech.com/2024/02/08/justin-yu |work=The Tech |date=February 8, 2024 |access-date=June 12, 2024}} In high school, Yu participated in a number of math competitions, including competing for the winning team in the 2016 Mathcounts National Competition,{{cite web |title=Alumni Chats: Justin Yu |url=https://www.mathcounts.org/about/alumni-chats-justin-yu |work=Mathcounts |date=September 2024 |access-date=March 26, 2025}} helping him to get accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a major in computer science and engineering. At MIT, Yu pursued another major in mathematics, with a minor in music technology, and is set to graduate in 2025. Yu also plays the cello in the MIT Video Game Orchestra, an orchestra at the school which performs covers of classic video game music. Yu has stated he places the Video Game Orchestra and other school commitments above practicing Tetris.
Tetris career
Yu began to play the original NES Tetris around 2016, becoming interested after watching videos of the game on YouTube, but never playing for more than an hour at a time. He began to pursue the game more competitively around 2019, playing in three to four hour sessions, where he often practiced to optimize his strategy. To get a better understanding of the game, Yu began to experiment in programming assembly and ROM hacking, which helped him to become the first person to reach Tetris{{'}}s late-game glitched color levels, and in his major at MIT. In the 2022 CTWC, Yu finished in second after losing to Eric Tolt (known online as "EricICX") in the finals. As a Junior in college, Yu again competed in the CTWC from October 13 to 15, 2023, where he beat fellow competitor Eve Commandeur (known online as "Sidnev") to place first, winning over US$3,000.{{cite news |last1=Leporati |first1=Gregory |title=Tetris championships, rare video games: Welcome to 8-bit paradise |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/11/03/portland-retro-gaming-expo-pinball-arcade-tetris/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=November 3, 2023 |access-date=12 January 2024}}
After the 2023 CTWC, Yu announced his intentions to try to "beat the game", a point late in the game when its code glitches and displays a game crash due to hardware limitations within the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).{{cite web |last1=Bailey |first1=Dustin |title=It took 34 years for someone to beat Tetris - now 2 more people have done it days apart from each other |url=https://www.gamesradar.com/it-took-34-years-for-someone-to-beat-tetris-now-2-more-people-have-done-it-days-apart-from-each-other/ |work=GamesRadar+ |date=January 5, 2023 |access-date=12 January 2024}} Fellow competitive Tetris player and YouTuber Willis Gibson (known online as "Blue Scuti") became inspired by this goal and competed against Yu for over two months to become the first to the achievement.{{cite web |last1=Halpern |first1=Jane |title=MIT junior Justin Yu crashes "Tetris," with thanks to the game's recent "space race" |url=https://news.mit.edu/2024/justin-yu-crashes-tetris-0209 |work=MIT News |date=February 9, 2024 |access-date=August 2, 2024}} Yu particularly struggled with a level nicknamed "dusk", which he described as "so incredibly dark that I felt as if I'd been blinded for a split second." While fixing the issue by purchasing a universal remote which increased his TV's brightness, Yu learned Gibson was close to crashing the game, and watched his livestream where Gibson ultimately "beat the game" on December 21, 2023.{{cite web |last1=Elmquist |first1=Jason |title=Wunderkind: Stillwater teen becomes first documented human to 'beat' Tetris |date=January 3, 2024 |url=https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/wunderkind-stillwater-teen-becomes-first-documented-human-to-beat-tetris/article_17e0519c-aa8e-11ee-8520-938fc6bd229c.html |work=Stillwater News Press |access-date=January 6, 2024}} Yu celebrated the achievement with Gibson, exclaiming "He did it, he did it!" on his own livestream.{{cite web |title=US teenager becomes first human to beat Tetris with game-ending glitch |url=https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20240104-us-teenager-becomes-first-human-to-beat-tetris-with-game-ending-glitch |work=France 24 |date=January 4, 2024 |access-date=January 12, 2024}}{{cite web |last1=Lynn |first1=Bryan |title=American teenager becomes first human to beat video game Tetris |url=https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/american-teenager-becomes-first-human-to-beat-video-game-tetris/7426747.html |work=Voice of America |date=January 4, 2024 |access-date=January 12, 2024}} Yu continued to work towards the goal, and on another livestream on January 3, 2024, he beat the game, becoming the second person to do so after Gibson and first person to achieve the earliest possible game crash on level 155, two levels quicker than on Gibson's run.{{cite web |last1=Ashraf |first1=Amirul |title=Classic Tetris World Champion has also beaten NES Tetris |url=https://gamermatters.com/classic-tetris-world-champion-has-also-beaten-nes-tetris/ |website=gamermatters.com |date=January 11, 2024 |access-date=12 January 2024}}{{cite AV media |people=Justin Yu |date=January 4, 2024 |title=I defeated NES Tetris. |type=YouTube video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGID9pD_-mU |access-date=January 12, 2024 |publisher=Fractal161}} After the large amount of media coverage that came from beating the game, Yu argued he did not want the message to read as "We've finished up!" to potential new players, when other achievements such as the "perfect Tetris game" consisting of only the highest scoring line-clears called "tetrises", and "rebirth", playing the same so long it restarts at level one, had both yet to be done.
In early 2024, Yu hosted his own Tetris event at MIT, which only through word of mouth had between fifty to sixty attendees. From June 8–9, Yu competed in the 2024 CTWC, where he was eliminated in the Round of 16 by Tristan Kwai (known online as "Tristop"), who went on to win third place.{{cite AV media |date=June 8, 2024 |title=Classic Tetris World Championship XV – Day 2 Tournament Begins! |publisher=Classic Tetris World Championship |type=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mluTYQ8G4B4 |access-date=June 12, 2024}}{{cite AV media |date=June 9, 2024 |title=Classic Tetris World Championship XV – Day 3 Finals |publisher=Classic Tetris World Championship |type=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jeaamhqfG8 |access-date=June 12, 2024}} Yu has stated his future goal is to one day help run Tetris websites and tournaments as opposed to competing in them, believing the large effort needed to run them often goes unnoticed.
Playing style
Shortly after Yu began to play competitively, he was among the first to change their playing style to "rolling", a technique which involves rolling the back of the controller with all five fingers to position the game pieces more quickly. This became crucial to beating later levels of the game and to staying competitive in modern tournaments. In a February 2024 interview with the newspaper The Tech, Yu stated his strategy revolved less around making "the board look as nice as possible", and trying to focus on completing tetrises.
Competitive record
Below is a table of the Tetris tournaments Yu participated in and their outcome. It should be noted the table is likely incomplete, as results on the CTM website prior to February 2022 only list the name of a competitor if they won or were the runner-up, not including the names of those who competed otherwise.
| class="sortable wikitable plainrowheaders" |
| scope="col"|Year
!scope="col"|Tournament !scope="col"|Score !scope="col"|Finishing place !scope="col" align="center" class=unsortable |{{abbr|Ref.|Reference}} |
|---|
| rowspan="2"|2020
| CTM April Challengers Circuit | align="center"|2–3 | {{won|place=2nd}} |
| CTM August Futures Circuit
| align="center"|3–1 | {{won|style=font-weight:bold|place=1st}} |
| rowspan="4"|2021
| CTM April Challengers Circuit | align="center"|2–2 | {{won|place=2nd}} |
| CTM June Challengers Circuit
| align="center"|3–0 | rowspan="2" {{won|style=font-weight:bold|place=1st}} |
| CTM August Masters Event
| align="center"|4–0 |
| Classic Tetris World Championship
| align="center"|3–2 | {{won|place=14th}} | align="center"|{{cite web |title=Results |url=https://thectwc.com/results/ |publisher=Classic Tetris World Championship |access-date=January 15, 2024}} |
| rowspan="10"|2022
| CTM March Masters Event | align="center"|0–1 | {{CFinalist|Contender}} |
| CTM April Masters Event
| align="center"|3–2 | {{won|style=font-weight:bold|place=1st}} |
| CTM May Masters Event
| align="center"|2–1 | rowspan="2" {{CFinalist|Contender}} |
| CTM June Masters Event
| align="center"|2–1 |
| CTM July Masters Event
| align="center"|4–0 | rowspan="2" {{won|style=font-weight:bold|place=1st}} |
| CTM August Masters Event
| align="center"|4–0 |
| CTM September Masters Event
| align="center"|2–1 | {{CFinalist|Contender}} |
| Classic Tetris World Championship
| align="center"|4–1 | {{won|place=2nd}} |
| CTM November Masters Event
| align="center"|2–1 | rowspan="5" {{CFinalist|Contender}} |
| CTM December Masters Event
| align="center"|1–1 |
| rowspan="9"|2023
| CTM January Masters Event | align="center"|0–1 |
| CTM Mega Masters
| align="center"|2–1 |
| CTM Lone Star Championship
| align="center"|0–1 |
| CTM PAL June Tier 1
| align="center"|6–1 | {{won|place=2nd}} |
| CTM August Masters Event
| align="center"|1–1 | rowspan="2" {{CFinalist|Contender}} |
| CTM September Masters Event
| align="center"|1–1 |
| Classic Tetris World Championship
| align="center"|5–0 | {{won|style=font-weight:bold|place=1st}} |
| CTM November Masters Event
| align="center"|3–1 | {{won|place=2nd}} |
| CTM December Masters Event
| align="center"|2–1 | {{CFinalist|Contender}} |
| rowspan="11"|2024
| CTM January Masters Event | align="center"|4–0 | rowspan="3" {{won|style=font-weight:bold|place=1st}} |
| CTM February Masters Event
| align="center"|4–0 |
| CTM Mega Masters
| align="center"|6–0 |
| CTM April Masters Event
| align="center"|1–1 | rowspan="5" {{CFinalist|Contender}} |
| CTM May Masters Event
| align="center"|1–1 |
| Classic Tetris World Championship
| align="center"|1–1 |
| CTM July DAS Masters Event
| align="center"|2–1 |
| CTM August DAS Masters Event
| align="center"|0–1 |
| The Jonas Cup
| align="center"|5–0 | {{won|style=font-weight:bold|place=1st}} |
| CTM October Masters Event
| align="center"|0–1 | rowspan="5" {{CFinalist|Contender}} |
| CTM October DAS Masters Event
| align="center"|2–1 |
| rowspan="3"|2025
| CTM January DAS Masters Event | align="center"|0–1 |
| CTM February Masters Event
| align="center"|1–1 |
| CTM February DAS Masters Event
| align="center"|2–1 |
Notelist
{{Notelist}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Portal bar|Gaming|United States}}
{{Tetris}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Justin}}
Category:Tetris (NES video game) players
Category:American gaming YouTubers
Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni