Search for world’s greatest Tetris player: Ecstasy of Order documentary now available

An award-winning documentary about the search for the world’s greatest Tetris player is now available to order.

The film tracks the 2010 world Tetris championships and has captured awards at multiple film festival awards, including the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Austin Film festival. It also includes footage of legendary gamer John McAllister’s 50-hour Asteroids marathon world record attempt.

Tetris has the distinction of being the first game ever created in the Soviet Union and exported to the US, after being designed by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It was first available in the west on Commodore 64 and early IBM PCs, and it came in number two on IGN’s list of the top 100 games of all time.

I’ve played and enjoyed Tetris, although I would not consider myself by any means a highly skilled player — or an ultimate fan. But watching the trailer is an education in itself:

“It’s the only video game that can be described as perfect,” says one fan. Another says it’s not just a game … it’s a history, an evolution.”

According to another, the trick to playing Tetris at a high level is to always be almost dead.

Enjoy:

Image credit: Appler/ShutterStock