Tetris anyone?

So last night I did something that lands on the list of the top ten dorkiest things I've ever done. Yes, that's right, a Tetris tournament. I know what you're thinking and believe me I thought the same thing. Tetris is a one player game.... how could you possibly have a tournament??? (ok, so maybe you were thinking, 'what kind of special person does it take to play in a Tetris tournament, but I chose to take the high road on this one.)

I did not know that there were people in the world who had devoted their lives to these geometric shapes and the ability to stack them neatly but last night I saw in Ben Krey the desire to be a Tetris Grand Master.

Here's how it works:

Each participant plays one warm up game for a high score to determine their bracket position in the tournament. After all of the scores are collected, the bracket is made where the worst person (me) goes 'head to head' with the best person (Ben) and so on. An important thing to note here is that score is not the whole deal. You must also have a high 'line count' in order to win. If you beat your opponent in score and not lines then you must have a 'play-off' in which you start at a higher level for expediency's sake. (technical jumbo, try to follow me.)

Now, how often could you possibly need to have a playoff in a Tetris tournament? This was the thought I had when the rules were being explained to me. Well, it just so happens that Miss Emily Kuhn and Mr. Steve Meyer, two worthy opponents, ran into just this scenario. It was a grueling battle to the 90 degree death, but Mr. Meyer finally triumphed and moved on to the final round.

The final bout between Mr.'s Meyer and Krey was an outstanding display of button tapping agility. It was so intense that I thought the controller might buckle under the pressure. At the end of the day Ben Krey proved that he is indeed a Tetris Grand Master as he gave the proverbial line spank to Steve.

As the match was breaking up I think I heard words of revenge coming out of the mouth of Charles Plummer... More on that next time.

For now I'll retire my NES controller and move on to Wii Bowling, a game at which I excel, and if anyone wanted to have a tournament on that, well, let's just say this would be a very different article.