Shuey aka John Schuepbach
Age 40 (May 11, 1972)
Tetris Age 23
Tetris Era - NES Tetris - when that was the only Tetris available - those were magical times!
Shuey during the NES Tetris years:
Shuey today, during the Pattern Building years, and Shuey 2.0!:
Notable achievements:
40L = 56.78
Perfect Secret Grade = 1:23 (TF)
S9 Secret Grade (NES)"Playing Forever" speed run = 1:28
TGM Big Mode = Completed with GM rank
Nullpomino Marathon+ starting at bonus round (progressive invisibility) = 94 lines in 6:37
TGM Big Mode = S1 at level 74
TGM Big Mode = S9 at level 367
19 combo on Tetris Friends Marathon
Tetris Negative Secret Grade (13 rows)
PSP Tetris = Cleared all game modes in less than 2 minutes each.
YouTube channel views = 3+ million
YouTube video views near 1 million:
I-Spin Tetris (10 rotations) = ~930k
Tetris Secret Grade PERFECT Build = ~910k
Shuey's most epic Tetris build
NES Secret Grade S8
First and foremost, tell me what Shuey means?
Well, when my dad was a young man (late teens/early 20's), his friends coined the name "Shuey" as a cool, sort of endearing term for him. They somehow took his last name "Schuepbach" and thought that "Shuey" sounded cool. When I was old enough to know about nicknames and hear the story from my dad, he basically said that I too was a "Shuey" since I was his kid. And eventually, all my good friends started calling me the same thing. It's been a part of me ever since.
How do you pronounce it? Like.. "Shoo-ey?"yep (I think you got it if I'm not mistaken.) Just to be safe, it's pronounced "Shoe-ee". It sounds exactly like "chewy", using an S instead of a C.
What game did you start playing on and what did you enjoy most about it?
NES Tetris
It was so long ago, I don't recall exactly what it was, but I've always loved jigsaw puzzles and puzzle/logic games, so I was instantly hooked as soon as I played it. I loved how it was challenging, but not difficult. And there was that element of wanting to reach a higher level or more lines; you knew you could do it, so you had to keep playing. Tetris has a replay value like no other game I've ever played, and I've been playing every genre of games for the last 34 years.
So can you tell us the other games you progressed to after NES Tetris?
The next "Tetris" game I played was the
GameBoy version. It was "ok", but I also thought it kinda sucked
I also played the
Tengen version on NES and liked it, but it didn't have good replay value for me because it could be played forever.
I remember playing the
Saturn version of Tetris Plus (I think that was the name). That was kinda cool because it had new elements I had not seen in previous Tetris games, but I didn't like that game enough to keep playing it.
I got
Tetrisphere for N64 when it came out and I liked the practice mode because I could just play and relax. I used to spend hours using two different piece types and trying to build the biggest combo I could. I ended up doing a 2000+ combo and recorded it with an old VHS camcorder, but the tape is long gone now. I really wish I still had that because I would totally upload it to YouTube. I've never seen anybody else dominate a big combo on that game.
I played for the first time on the NES in 1989. I was instantly captivated and played it heavily for the next couple years. I was only able to survive to level 24 (back then, we had no idea it maxed out at level 29). Around the end of 1992, I stopped playing Tetris religiously and didn't get back into it until I bought the Wii version (Tetris Party) in early 2010. Early that year, I discovered a pattern in TGM that gave you a "secret grade" (I originally saw it in a YouTube video).
Clones or other versions I've played but never really spent any significant time with:Blockbox (I've only played it a couple times)
TetriNet/TN2 (I played it for a couple months with friends)
GameBoy Tetris (Back when I owned a GB as a late teenager - I played it until I could reach level 20 and then never really played it much after that)
Tengen Tetris on NES (I played it for a few weeks - until I realized it maxed out at level 17 and could be played infinitely)
Tetris Axis (My son has this on his 3DS and it's pretty cool, but I can't stand how uncomfortable the controls are)
Atari/Tengen Tetris at the arcade
The
New Tetris on N64 (I loved the "square" mode on this game!)
Cultris 2 (I made it to the last level in training mode, but never completed it; and I never bothered trying since I last played it.)
Do you play multiplayer? I noticed you mentioned Blockbox, tnet and c2 but you're known more for your pattern videos such as the recent Mega Man and Green Lantern patterns. Yeah, I've never been too into multiplayer because I've never been fast. I've made it to the highest level on TetrisFriends and Tetris Battle on Facebook, but that honestly doesn't say anything about me as far as skill goes because I consider myself a horrible multiplayer compared to most people. I'm in shock at how fast people can play, especially people who have only been playing Tetris for a year or less!
What single player modes do you usually practice on when you play?I mostly enjoy playing Nullpomino because of all the modes. The modes I play most are Marathon, Marathon+, the Grade Mania modes, the Speed Mania modes, and of course Practice mode for a lot of my complex patterns.
Can you briefly explain the differences between these modes and which ones you like the most?Practice is probably the most important mode for me lately because I have been building so many complex patterns that I depend on some of the features Practice mode offers, like fixed gravity (I usually play with "2" so I can push the pieces down fast enough when I need to, but also don't have to deal with fast gravity, gravity that increases, or a ridiculously slow soft drop speed). As for differences in the other modes, I like the
Grade Mania modes because they closely simulate the 3 games in the TGM series. And of course the
Marathon modes simulate the
Marathon and
Survival from Tetris Friends which are fun to play once in a while.
As for which ones I like most, it all depends on what I'm going for. I still want to achieve grand master in TGM1, so I will play Grade Mania for that when I finally make the time to do it.
But Practice mode is what I like the most lately because my focus is patterns. I can't get enough of them
What moved you to start building patterns on Tetris?
In early 2010, I discovered Tetris Friends. The combination of the missions in TF and the secret grade pattern in TGM gave me a whole new perspective on Tetris and really excited me! I started to see that there was so much more to Tetris than "seeing how many lines I could get" or "how long I could survive". Once I started trying to build the secret grade pattern, I became so obsessed with it that I couldn't stop until I was able to complete the standard 19 rows on a regular basis.
Then I obsessed about building it over and over again. I would play game after game building this pattern. Around April of 2010, I realized I could complete the 20th row (a "perfect" build), and I recorded a video of it and posted it to YouTube in May 2010. At the time, I was extremely proud of the accomplishment, especially since I had never seen anyone else do it prior to my video. Looking back now, the time to completion was horrible, lol (over 4 minutes). I of course have redeemed myself as far as time goes when I completed the build in 1 minute 23 seconds. I'd love to do it someday in 60 seconds or less, but I haven't actively attempted it yet. The only other person I know who has come close is Kitaru; he completed 19 rows in 52 seconds. And ever since then, I have not been able to stop obsessing about patterns
I love how when I build them, I totally get lost in my own world and I also love the way they continue to challenge my mind. And I also love the feeling of continually completing new patterns; it's very rewarding
What's the easiest pattern you've made?
I think the standard 19 row secret grade is the easiest, especially since I've built it hundreds of times. The 20 row one (a perfect build) is also kinda easy, but I can't successfully build that one EVERY time I attempt it. I'd be willing to bet that nobody in the world could do it successfully 100% of the time.
Is that the secret mode 1 on bb? (I'm not even sure if that's what it was called.. totallly forgot)
I'm not sure, I've only played bb a couple times; just to see what all the hype was about.
Is that the one you're talking about? (Googled standard 19 row secret grade haha)
Nope, that one is the double helix. One sec, I'll link the perfect build secret grade (I prefer the 20 row one because it means more to me. Building the 19 row build only really matters to me if I'm wanting to knock one out quick on Nullpo, or if I'm wanting to get a GM rank for the secret grade on TGM/Grade Mania.
Here is an example of a perfect build
What's the most difficult pattern you've done?
THE most difficult pattern I've done to date so far (if I had to pick only one) would be my "Fireworks Explosion" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl-fihrDCqU), but there are several that have been the most challenging patterns for me, especially when I consider that there are certain patterns that, the first time I built them, were more challenging at the time (due to my current skill level at that time) than they would be to me now.
My skill definitely continues to evolve, which continues to keep it so exciting.
What are your Tetris goals?
That definitely can't be answered with a simple answer because I have many Tetris goals. In no particular order, here are some that come to mind:
1. Break the 50 second barrier in sprint/40L (and I'd of course like to someday break the 40 and 30 second barriers, but I'm not sure if it will ever be possible because I don't make the time to get better at this mode).
2. Reach GM rank in TGM 1, 2 and 3.
3. Break the 50 second barrier on the 19 row secret grade (using the guideline/TF standard, not the TGM/SRS standard).
4. Break the 60 second barrier on the perfect secret grade (again, TF standard).
5. Break the 60 second barrier on my "Playing Forever" speed run.
6. Reach 200+ lines starting on the final level in Nullpomino Marathon+.
7. 20 or 20+ combo on Tetris Friends (non-multiplayer mode).
8. Continue my Perfect Clear study and make new discoveries in this particular discipline (more info can be found on the Hard Drop forums under Perfect Clear Study).
9. Reach 10 million total video views on my YouTube channel (I'd actually love to reach a billion views, but I'm shooting for a more realistic goal for now
).
10. Become famous around the world (mainstream fame) for my patterns.
I'm pretty sure you'll reach #9 and #10, lol your videos are one of a kind, yeah, I think the sprint goals will be the hardest for me to accomplish - especially since I don't ever practice or make time to try to get better in that mode
I'm actually fairly close on all the other goals (except for 7 and 8
) But I agree, I'll get there on those too someday soon hopefully
What steps do you take for preparing yourself before making these patterns?As for preparing myself, I'm not sure I could necessarily say I "prepare" myself. I guess in a way I do, but here is how it generally goes:
1.
Conception: either a pattern will suddenly come to me, or I will purposely trying to come up with a new pattern.
2.
"Preparing": I will use Paint.NET to open a grid template I have and use on a regular basis, and I'll start either filling squares to match the pattern from my mind, or I'll just start filling squares in a pattern that might work and have a "yeah, that will work" moment.
3.
Building: I will then open Nullpomino and open a separate window with the pattern so I can look at them both at the same time.
How this has all evolved has been neat. When I first started, I actually drew pattern concepts on paper, but that quickly switched to Paint.NET because it was more flexible and easier to work with.
Also, when I first started building patterns, I used to struggle with the complex ones (complex at the time, but not nearly as complex now if I was to do the earlier patterns today) because when I would complete a row, it was hard for my mind to separate the current row from the next row. So back in the day, I used to occasionaly build two "mock-ups": one of the actual pattern without modification, and one where I would put space between each row so I could see each row more distinctly. But after building so many different and complex patterns, I no longer need to use that "spaced mock-up" method any longer because my mind has adjusted to being able to separate the rows in my mind as I build.
Another note, when I first started, I used Tetris Friends a lot because it's all I knew or had. Things I hated about it were that it was laggy (some times a pattern would get jacked up because a piece movement would get lost in lag, and I'd have to fix the mistake in order to keep going and finish the pattern which really got irritating). Also, if I recorded TF WHILE playing, it would get more laggy. And worse yet, if I didn't record and then tried recording the replay at the end, some times the replays would glitch due to Flash sucking so bad on TF, so I'd lose all the work I just did. So moving to Nullpo was much nicer because there was no lag at all.
Another evolution is that, prior to building the negative secret grade, I had no idea I could use "replay". This was so helpful because now, if I was going along, spending 30 minutes on a pattern, and suddenly made a totally stupid mistake, I could kill myself, reload the replay of what I had just done so far, and fast forward to the point prior to the mistake and avoid it all together.
Another way pattern building has evolved is that I have learned how to build 2 row perfect clears like a beast, as well as 3 and 4 line perfect clears. This is essential with most patterns that I do now.
But the Fireworks pattern helped me grow even more. I never thought much about the math that's involved with pattern building, not even with the negative secret grade (which most people at the time thought it involved math a lot - and it did actually, but with that pattern, I didn't think about math, I just played and it all came together so naturally for me).
But with these more recent patterns, I've discovered things that I never thought about before. Patterns where you not only have to build a stack and place pieces before clearing the stack, leaving your previously placed strategic pieces in their correct location, but patterns where you can't simply build a perfect clear stack and set pieces on top of it and then clear it. Some of my recent patterns have involved building a pattern within a pattern and then placing a piece inside it. Or doing what I just said AND also incorporating a separate perfect clear stack. It's really crazy, but it's also what continues to make pattern building so exciting for me.
When I first started taking on more difficult patterns (patterns that would be totally easy for me now mind you), I would get such a rush and get so excited prior to certain points in the pattern, that my heart would start beating like crazy
Something I have to be so much more aware of with my recent patterns is "odds" and "evens".When building complex patterns, it's important to be aware of your piece count, specifically if the count is at an even number or and odd number after each line clear - or - if your next line you're working towards is going to only have 1 piece in it, you have to plan accordingly. It'd be a little easier to explain if I was to refer to some actual examples from some of my previous builds. I could probably use my "Fireworks Explosion" video as a good example. With the majority of my patterns (prior to the Fireworks Explosion pattern), I could build a "perfect clear stack", leaving one piece out, strategically stack some pieces on top of the stack, then drop the final "clear" piece in after I was done. But with the fireworks pattern, I had to build a pattern within a pattern and use that as my "clear stack", and place a couple pieces on top of it and a couple pieces IN it, in order to progress to the next row of the build. You can see this if you watch how I build after row 2 is completed. I end up using rows 3 and 4 as a temporary work space to setup a partial pattern as a setup to build and complete row 3. Then when I went to build row 4, I ended up completing at least 5 perfect clears in the process of trying to strategically line up the pieces before eventually realizing I was going about it the wrong way and had to change my approach. Then when I went to build row 8, I ended up building a set of staggered perfect clear stacks, something I've never done before, but was necessary.
This stuff is very challenging for me to elaborate on and feel like it's actually being conveyed in the same way that my mind processes it, lol. I hope people can at least make sense of 50% of what I just rambled about
.
What is something that you think most people don't know about your pattern building skill?
I think Amnesia said it well recently.
QUOTE
"I thought it was a stupid long method, but it is actually pure art and reflexion. The sadest in this story, is that the specific talent Shuey developped, is really more astonishing than people can imagine. They think "Ok, Shuey is the best patterns builder but it is bacause he is really patient and that's all. It is of course a matter of patience, but more than that, it requier an extreme intellectual hability for pure building. Unfortunaty Shuey is alone of earth and no concurrent allow to balance with an objective exterior point of view. I will try some little patterns, like the "BIG T" to improve the accuracy of my judgement on this domain, but don't expect me to become a rival, life is so short unfortunately. I have a S13 to catch and maybe something better than MK." Amnesia
I realize there were some grammatical errors in his statement, but you get the jist of the message he's trying to convey and I appreciated his perspective A LOT.
What do you think of multiplayer Tetris? How would you like to see it evolve?
If Blink or Hebo asked me to play against them so that they could practice for a championship game, they'd be wasting their time because they'd only get to play for a few seconds each game because my play field would be completely slammed with garbage before I ever had a chance to clear even a few lines
. Again, I think multiplayer is cool, and I'm continually amazed at the skill levels of so many players, but I'm not even close to being a good player, so it's not very fun for me unless I'm playing with some people who are at my skill level. THEN it's fun, but it's still not what I enjoy most about Tetris currently. I don't see myself ever dedicating the time necessary for me to get good at this discipline, but I definitely hope to see it evolve as a whole. Blink and Hebo really opened my eyes to how brutally awesome multiplayer is and can be, and I look forward to seeing them and other players continue to push the envelope to new extremes!
Shout outs
First and foremost:
God - Without Him, none of what I do would be possible.
My wife and son for their 100% support of my passion.
Kitaru for not only being the first person who really supported my pattern work, but also for all of the amazing skill and knowledge he's shared with me about the other facets of Tetris, such as TGM.
Amnesia for his pure appreciation and understanding of what I do, and for what a good friend and support he's been to me.
Ai (Kim), also known as
TetrisdAiSuki, for all of the support, inspiration and friendship.
KAN for being the sickest TGM player I've ever seen.
SAL for being a huge inspiration in the TGM big mode realm, as well as for his absolutely amazing checkerboard accomplishment, and for his much appreciated support.
Zircean, Max and Bill for their TGM inspiration and support!
DAS and Estrelleta for teaching me two methods for doing S/Z spins. Knowing how to effectively do these spins has helped my pattern building even more!
Ben and Jesse (of the NES Tetris community) for their continued support.
Baseballboy for helping me practice for the blind-folded challenge (dude, we gotta finish this!).
And, I hate saying this because it's too cliche, but I want to thank anyone else I have forgotten to mention, and give a shout out to all the people who have supported me and my YouTube channel over the last two years
Last but not least, I'd like to give a shout-out to you! I appreciate your patience and for letting me be so detailed - I'm a freak about detail
.
Interview with Shuey
May 23 2012, 03:22 PM
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