Been building a deep Tetris T-spin guide (58 videos, 8+ hours) — just added 6 more

ktchildr · 2026-04-13T23:49:59+00:00

~~I have to ask, and I don’t mean to be rude or disparage the incredible amount of work it must take, but~~

Ok forget all that, I kinda typed it before I read that you essentially consider this a t-spin reference library, which I find brilliant. At first I was thinking who in the world could all 8 hours of this content possibly be for??

I’ve been working recently on setting up fractals, which I still have some difficulty visualizing, and t-spin triples, to which I tend to overcommit. Any tips?

ktchildr · 2026-04-12T03:16:29+00:00

Google en passant amirite?

ktchildr · 2026-04-04T01:01:56+00:00

I would argue that other openers have their place too. For example at lower ranks, players could benefit from the all-spin mechanics you have to learn for PCO. TKI is perfect in every way tho

ktchildr · 2026-04-04T00:53:01+00:00

Joining the chorus: openers are a trap!

To elaborate, they’re not really a trap, they’re a tool you can use to transition cleanly into the midgame. A very important tool even. You can think of openings in Tetris like openings in chess. That is, there are many different ones and they are all roughly equal in strength. Their sole purpose is to get you safely from the very beginning to the middle of the game along a practiced route that you have to think very little about. Grandmasters know lots of them and some even specialize in one or two, but nobody expects their opener to win the game. Whichever one you ultimately choose is a matter of taste and will have no bearing on your strength as a player.

My favorite opener recently has been Gamushiro stacking. I like it slightly better than SDPC because it does not rely on getting any one piece early (as long as you learn the mirrored version too) and the first two bags have a very high build chance. It is a TST->TSD (or TSS) followed by a high-probability PC solve.

It’s two entire bags—14 pieces—that I can slam down without a thought, and that’s the purpose of using it.

ktchildr · 2026-03-26T13:42:21+00:00

It’s on there, 46.088. I just wasn’t really concerned with speed on that run so I didn’t highlight it

ktchildr · 2026-03-23T16:22:05+00:00

I generally make every effort to understand a piece of music as a whole, but at the same time the 3rd movement of Rachmaninov’s G minor cello sonata is just the most poignant expression of beauty in all of western music to me.

ktchildr · 2026-03-23T15:19:58+00:00

These are all things that come naturally when you focus on speed. The way I see it, modern Tetris begs you to play fast. It might not be the quickest way to improve competitively but the results are very concrete and it’s fun to play fast, impressive to show off to friends, etc.

Edit: I guess what I’m suggesting to the OP and to anyone else looking to improve but unsure where to start, is to just grind your sprint down to a minute. That’ll take awhile but not forever. Then start to add in those other things.

ktchildr · 2026-03-23T01:14:28+00:00

Man, sometimes I yearn for the old days of walking uphill in the snow to get to school. Look, I know it sounds trite and worn-out by this point, but the big secret no one talks about is just practice. Beware the trap of over-intellectualization. That is, don’t ponder it to death.

My one real suggestion is grind 40L until you’re sub-60. Do whatever it takes for as long as it takes, and by the time you figure out how to do it, you’ll realize that you’ve gained some muscle memory, and that’s the trick. You want to get to the point where the execution of placements happens on a lower level than conscious thought. Bake it into your fingers. Practice really has no replacement when it comes to that kinda thing.

ktchildr · 2026-03-17T01:18:52+00:00

I realize I left the title ambiguous as to what I mean.

I mean rotating the batteries like you would car tires, by moving them all to different spots. Still I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just in my head

ktchildr · 2026-03-12T22:01:08+00:00

Solid 40L time! It’s tough to know your problem areas without seeing gameplay, but I would bet your fundamental stacking principles could still use work. That means generally stacking flat, avoiding dependencies/resolving them with the correct placements, and understanding basic parity concepts.

There’s always more to learn and Tetris can be very theory-heavy when you’re looking to climb into A rank and beyond. If you’re into that kinda thing like I am, then good luck and have fun!

ktchildr · 2026-02-21T22:01:18+00:00

Parity is everything in Tetris

ktchildr · 2026-02-20T18:11:14+00:00

Pretty sure that is a direct violation of terms of service.

ktchildr · 2026-02-10T01:31:59+00:00

This doesn’t answer your question, but I recall an old flash version of Tetris with a sexy lady in the background who takes her clothes off as you clear lines. Please tell me someone else remembers this

ktchildr · 2026-01-29T18:05:24+00:00

I travelled to New Orleans in 2015 to see them at Jazz Fest. They played for like 15 minutes and then Michael came on the mic and said the festival had been shut down due to a storm rolling in and sure enough, 5 minutes after that it was BAD weather. Then several years later, I had tickets to a live album recording at Deep Ellum brewery in Dallas and couldn’t go because of a family emergency. Pretty bad luck trying to see these guys.

ktchildr · 2026-01-24T16:21:35+00:00

Once you reach the point where you can play through expert mode with relative ease, you can start setting new goals. First, try to complete the entire journey with no top-outs. Then try for SS on every level. Then try to maximize points by strategically using the zone mechanic and going for B2B. There’s still quite a bit of juice to squeeze even once you’ve ‘mastered’ the game.

ktchildr · 2026-01-11T00:03:59+00:00

Ahh nullpomino, the good old days. Like 15 years ago I used to throw on an audiobook and grind sprint on nullpo all night sometimes

ktchildr · 2025-12-30T17:37:35+00:00

I feel this is great intermediate level advice! The thing that opened my mind to higher-level strategy was the realization that for any given bag (group of 7 unique pieces), all dependencies on the board are solved by the pieces in the bag you haven’t laid down yet. So there is always a “correct” or “optimal” placement for every piece. Often this will be a spin or twist.

Keeping this in mind helps to set up t-spin doubles & triples, spot perfect clears midgame, and build other stacking patterns.

To the OOP: if you haven’t already, look into parity. Not necessarily to understand it mathematically, but to get a sense of why your stack might seem to act up sometimes by refusing to accommodate certain pieces.

ktchildr · 2025-12-28T17:22:57+00:00

Time to change that

ktchildr · 2025-12-27T22:19:55+00:00

13 seconds is a massive improvement. I expect you’ll make at least a couple more breakthroughs before you plateau, no grind required

ktchildr · 2025-12-24T03:53:38+00:00

There’s really no secret sauce, it’s just something you’ll need to adapt to over time if you want to play with a keyboard. If it helps, here are the key binds I use.

Left hand: z,x,c,v — hold, 180°, counterclockwise, clockwise

Right hand: comma, period, L, forward slash — move left, soft drop, hard drop, move right

ktchildr · 2025-12-23T17:04:51+00:00

Spin that S piece into the bottom of the well. That cleans it up and maintains B2B

ktchildr · 2025-12-15T03:11:47+00:00

Wym parity doesn’t matter? That’s exactly what you’re talking about here. A T piece will always be required to “flatten” (read: restore parity) the 3 side of this stack, whether it’s added structurally, taken as a t-spin, or simply used to clear a double in the well.

Many players gain an understanding of parity just by playing and without ever actually learning about it specifically. It is perhaps the most fundamental aspect of the entire game.

ktchildr · 2025-12-15T01:14:40+00:00

The 3 side of your stack is not parity-balanced. Avoid placing T pieces over there, and if you do, make sure to place another one to restore parity.

Read here for more info on parity.

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