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Because you aren't listening to these hot figs yet

http://www.youtube.com/user/iamchriish#p/u

Put Your Cup Down     - a forward challenge a la Wink Yahoo to not drink. BET YOU CANT DO IT.


much love hard drop believe in yourself and fly

[Jan 8th 2011]

Jan 8th 2011

Happy new year! Year of the rabbit is supposed to be a calm one....

Since my last post, I didn't get to actually practice as much as I had resolved to with the time off, but I did do lots of playing. On TF I'm comfortable at rank 14 , and can more or less count on sending about 40 lines a game. I feel a definite improvement with just playing more games, so to those feeling hopeless, just grind it out, endure some tetris related hallucinations, and enjoy your new found success. In my 1v1 games I always go for a 2 wide sort of combo play. While it might not take a huge amount of skill, it's really rewarding , and is just a tad harder to get your stack going than with a regular tetris sort of play where you would have 9 spaces to stack with.

Recently ST stacking was introduced to me. To the pros out there I ask - Is this considered multiplayer viable strategy? Having something technical like that to build towards really gives me motivation to play, but I don't want to waste my time..

In some pretty exciting news :

http://harddrop.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3130

Noogy is offering to help out people at right around my level. Looking forward to see what kind of insight can be shared in tetris. He's very kind to extend such an offer. I'll be sure to post when the lessons get rolling.

I missed the online tetris finals which I am bummed about. Is anyone offering a replay of the stream? I was really interested in what the commentary would be, and can't seem to find a way to watch the tournament, or at least the finals.

ty ty  (aww they took my smiley away! ) :

Oh please take me : )

Exactly the little nuggets Im hoping to get out of this thread. duly noted and maybe I'll make a point of just starting my playing by looking at a replay or two.

ty mippo, ty


@ Caff.

Ahh this chart is so fun to look at . I just keep thinking about things in my life and how it fits. It's not overly genius, but it's extremely concise . I think of some of my musical performances and how easily it all fits into that chart. I'll try and pick that book up over the holidays, though I'm a bit frightened of trying to go into and shopping mall. Eep.

[Dec 23rd 2010]

Dec 23rd 2010

Merry Christmas and all that.

I've just been going on as normal, trying to focus on the things. It's pretty clear that none of this happens over night. I've mostly been playing one player mode so I'm not stressed out or anything while I think. By opening with a T spin I usually trump my opponents in battle mode however. I went from rank 11 and am feeling a good challenge at 13. I admit, it's mostly basic stacking mistakes and poor planning that has me losing, and not the pressure of the opponent. I'll need to practice alone more, I think.   LPM average around 16 in this mode for me.

Working on speed and finesse, my Sprint (clear 40 lines, no bonuses) time has gone down from 2:30 to 2:00 on average, with my best time being 1:53. Though I can tell now that every second shaved off from here on in will be hard earned. I ALWAYS play better when I play off the next  block in my bag and not just what's in my hands. The problem is remembering to keep an eye up there! one can easily forget in the heat of the moment.

For fun, I've been messing around with trying to setup B2B t spins. It's obviously out of my league, but it gets your head thinking in new ways. It's a great challenge to only be able to stack up on 7 columns instead of 9.

Since I neglected actually working on my T spin openings, I will make sure to do that this week. Other than that, It's going to be mostly sprint and marathon play for practice.

2 become 1

Finally - one method to practice I have been using to help with "playing a block into the bag".

look at your current block, and then next one. Decide where they are both going to go, then finesse them as best you can and as fast as you can one after another. Then, stop, and think about your next two moves before making a move. Repeat. I believe this in time will let my mind be less jumpy, and see new blocks as just an extension of the current one, and take some of the franticness out of playing.


-Must remember to look at next piece

-work on T spin openings

-keep doing the "two piece at a time" method and see how it comes along

-work on Sprint speed



All the best, I hope santa brings you lots of l and t minos.

ty ty

What you're experiencing is Csiksentimihalyi's "flow."
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=...amp;sciodt=2000

3 conditions:

1. One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals. This adds direction and structure to the task.
2.  One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and his or her own perceived skills. One must have confidence that he or she is capable to do the task at hand.
3.  The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows him or her to adjust his or her performance to maintain the flow state.

That's very interesting. I'm going to read up on your link. The poor fellow has a last name that will just never catch on though haha.

Though I will say from a cursory glance it appears to be an intellectualizing of something that is anything but intellectual. Perhaps it may sound flighty to some, but when we shut off our mind for a minute, then we just tap into our raw instinctual nature. This is and has been the premise of meditation since well, forever.


I do appreciate the scholarly spin on it though, since I like thinking about things that I have an interest in , thanks for the link.


That poor fellow has a last name that just will never catch on though, haha.

Good luck to you! You will see a lot of improvement if you really enjoy the game. To me it is almost like a game of chess. It definitely stimulates the mind to the point where stacking becomes second nature. Once it is second nature you start focusing on the bigger picture and the stacking is automatic.

Yea exactly! It's like real time chess, or more like real time lego. Well what some may not like to admit is when we are in the "Tetra-Zone" and just not thinking about anything just pure instinct - that's meditation. You can find this in any kind of engaging activity, though I feel it comes out quicker and sooner in tetris because of the immediacy of things. Oddly enough, I find the hardest time being able to reach it through my music lately. In martial arts (I'm a an amateur) you also get in that zone because you don't really want to get punched. Tetris has a similar feeling and I think that combined with the "shop talk" that goes on is something that really compels me towards this game. Plus it's easy to fire up just a few rounds when I'm on break (or sometimes a few too many!)

Oh! I just realized I have to send you a message over PM regarding some stuff. Thanks for the help so far, BTW. If you ever have any musical questions I'd love to try and help.

ty ty  

[Dec 15 2010]

From what I can tell, this isn't breaking any rules and I think that while a lot of the players here are high level, the silent minority might be those who are a bit newer (like myself) but aren't posting.

So, for both myself and the benefit of others, I'm going to use this thread as a place to discuss my own improvement as well as a log which I will update weekly so one can see the progression of an amateur and maybe avoid some of the pit falls I'm sure to encounter, and I can see what areas I need to improve.


Dec 15 2010

Just started playing tetris again because of a crazy youtube video I saw (invisible tetris, arika). So I've been playing Tetris Friends (TF) with a room mate and some friends.

I was getting beat often in 1v1 so I wondered that their must be more to it than speed. I started looking up all sorts of theories and esoteric strategies and was a bit lost. I started getting quick with the
"Play Forever" method which helped boost some confidence as well as made for a novel trick for my friends. I didn't think it would sustain in multi since I never saw others use it. Though I beat my friends a bit with it, at the advice of some of the members here I stopped.

At their advice I have also begun to:

-Rotate with both keys, trying to remember the 'finesse' movements.

-Focus on stacking cleanly. Sometimes I find I make "castle" like stacks with lots of square pieces jutting out everywhere so no O L or J pieces can work. I have to fix this.

-Look to the next piece to plan accordingly

-I picked up some graph paper and taped up 4 different T Spin Double (TSD) openings. I practiced them for a while today and can expect to have a TSD out from 6-20 seconds. This gives me some confidence in multiplayer since it stuns the opponent at my level. I did this by practicing each opening separately for about half an hour. If I didn't get the starting piece I was happy with, I just hit restart, so I could hone ONE opening at a time. Then, I just went with what I was given. I found this to be very effective.

-I'm playing without the ghost piece as well as trying to not use the hold function in some marathon practicing just so I can use these things as a bonus tool, and not a crutch. So I can expand my repertoire of available moves per situation.

-I've begun some low level skimming ideas too

Of these things, I try and just worry about ONE while I play. It keeps the mind from getting overwhelmed.

I plan on committing at least 30 minute of focus on one aspect of my play everyday, and then maybe some more in real games just to get some instinct and application going. I know fundamentals will be important.

What a fun game!

ty ty  

Ok great. It's good to know even if this community isn't massive it sure makes up for it in quality members.

I'm playing TF , mostly just because that's what my friends have been playing. Is there a taboo about it or anything bad about it?

Where could I find this shoutbox that everyone seems to be in?!

KDbar - Who do you like? Obviously Tribe, maybe souls of mischief . I personally really like Black Star and Mos Def ranks way up there for MCs. He's always consistent and has a genuine appreciation for the jazz samples he uses. Any suggestions? I wasn't sure if you meant hip hop with jazz influence, or just both just jazz and hip hop, but seperate...

Oh this is exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for.

I'm going to passively practice T spin double set ups (since I was doing t spin stuff already)

but on my frontburners I'm trying to remember the rotations for each piece, one at a time.


To Xael and those who are telling me to work on efficiency and stacking. Is there a sort of method, or pattern I should memorize or something to stack / guidelines? Or should I just mass games and slowly the patterns will reveal themselves...  Obviously, I should be trying to rotate in the least amount button presses as possible.

Also, should I be stacking for a combo pipe or a tetris pipe ? (2 spaces vs 1?)


To clarifiy - the "forever loop" method has no place in multiplayer, correct? Is it just too risky or not enough gain for the stack required?



Paradox! You play? What instrument / interests? That's great. Guitar is my main instrument, but I play all styles at a level that gets me hired. I studied the classical at university and mostly gig with that and different jazz groups, but the whole rock and pop thing comes up from time to time and is loads of fun. I also teach and get the odd transcribing /composition gig.

Oh yes, I write, all styles. Lots of "songs" just voice and guitar, and loads of instrumental things, usually mixing live sounds with electronic ones . Aside from my "songs" most people consider my instrumental stuff "far out" , whatever that means.

Oops, I gushed about music.

feel free to keep the tips and tricks comin I'm checkin this thread as I'm playing. I'd especially like to hear suggestions for just basic stacking since that seems to be a common thread in your answers. Thanks for welcoming me to the community BTW

ty ty  

Jeese a helpful bunch here!

ok I'm rotating with Z and X seems to be going alright, just trying to remember which way the pieces go hah.

Coolman, is there a certain way or method/guidelines I should have in mind while practicing my stack?

-I'll have to look up DAS and ARR and finesse...

With the T spin double set up that Paradox mentioned

"Quick Openers
The TSD start "

so I should just aim to T spin double as my first move , then just stack up and play however I can from there?

I hope the questions and details aren't too much. I am a professional musician and amateur martial arts practitioner and I know solid, fundamental technique can get you very far. Your basic skill can never be too polished.

Ty ty  

Are you looking to be good at multiplayer?


Hope this helps, if you have any issues with the terminology check out the wiki.

Yes, and just in general. And yes it helped a lot. So I need an opening.

Wow, great thanks! Should I go on it right now? I'm a real beginner but if you have some time to share that'd be great.

So I just realized how cool tetris is and a friend and I have been playing each other for fun. In most things I do, I like to know the why and the how and the below the surface sort of thinking. So he's trying to up his speed in just stacking as best he can and going for B2B tetris. That seems fun, but I get more satisfaction out of doing something I can work at and see the progress instead of just massing games and hoping it's working.

So, my query.

Should I just focus on stacking randomly and hone my instincts? I've been working on just setting up T spin singles here and there, I notice there is a build that lets you make T spin doubles/singles your main goal instead of tetris (more efficient!?) I've been working on that as well as the "play forever" loop which I can do pretty comfortably now (is this strategy no good in multiplayer?).

What's a good way to increase me skills? Look up stacking patterns and work on them or work on an opening (the SD yoshihiro looks fun) or just mass games, or learn how to make T spin overhangs over a single column .

Could you point  me in a direction to work on some things? I don't mind grinding it out in marathon to hone the skills, I just want a focal point.

ty ty