SAN FRANCISCO (NEWSnetAP) — The falling-block video game Tetris has met its match in 13-year-old Willis Gibson, considered the first player to officially “beat” the original Nintendo version of the game.

Willis — known as “blue scuti” in the gaming world — made it to what gamers call a “kill screen,” a point where the Tetris code glitches, crashing the game.

This point is a highly coveted achievement in the world of video games, where records involve pushing hardware and software beyond their limits.

It's also a very big deal for players of Tetris, which many had long considered unbeatable. The game doesn't have an official end; those four-block shapes just keep falling no matter how good you get at stacking them into disappearing rows.

Top players continued to find ways to extend their winning streaks; but in the end, the game beat them all.

Until, that is, Willis managed on Dec. 21 to trigger a kill screen on Level 157, which the gaming world takes as a victory over the game — something along the lines of pushing the software past its own limits.

The makers of Tetris agree. “Congratulations to ‘blue scuti’ for achieving this extraordinary accomplishment, a feat that defies all preconceived limits of this legendary game,” Tetris CEO Maya Rogers said in a statement.

Rogers noted that Tetris will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year and called Willis' victory a “monumental achievement.”

Years of research and tracking what tricks worked past some bizarre quirks in extended play contributed to the point where Willis could make his attempt.

Yet even he appeared shocked when he crashed the game at Level 157. In a livestream video, his he appears to hyperventilate before barely gasping “Oh my God” several times, clutching his temples and worrying that he might be passing out.

Willis finally exclaims, “I can’t feel my fingers."

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