You remember playing Tetris on Nintendo or the Gameboy back in the day? Relaxing, the soothing sugar plum fairy music. Roger Teng shows us today's competitive Tetris is nothing like that.
The flashing colors explode at a dizzying pace when Roger Teng plays Tetris. He's all thumbs, which is important when you're trying to make all the right pieces fit to line up a national title.
Roger Teng said, "Actually when I told people about it they didn't believe me."
But he brought back a trophy from last month's tournament at USC. Teng and his partner took the team title and split one-thousand dollars. Roger started playing competitively five years ago.
Roger Teng said, "When that happened that was actually on the computer where they had a website where people could play against each other."
Teng ended up meeting those on-line gamers and beating them at nationals. His parents own two China Bistro restaurants in Fresno. They never knew his all-nighters were practice sessions.
Roger Teng said, "A lot of times I'm just staying up late at night practicing Tetris and mom's telling me you need to go to sleep. It's too late to be playing, even though I'm 22 years old."
Roger's dad is now encouraging him to compete at a world tournament in London next summer.
Roger's dad, Jason Teng said, "He said the money is not that big but we want him to see more of the world."
Today's Tetris is a different deal.
In competitive Tetris the more lines you clear on the matrix you more gray lines you can send to mess up your opponent.
Roger visualizes each piece before it even comes into play. His ability to think several steps ahead earned him a Tetris national championship.
Action News asked, "Are the girls impressed?"
Roger Teng replied, "I wouldn't say too many are. Hahaha."
During Team Tetris Roger and his partner played offense and defense - blocking lines.
Word is Tetris gamers in Korea and Japan are the fastest. But London may be the place to settle a true world championship.
