Posted in: eSports, Games, Video Games | Tagged: Red Bull, Red Bull Tetris, tetris

We Attended The Red Bull Tetris National Final in Florida

We look back at the Red Bull Tetris National Final in FLorida a few weeks ago, as the U.S. champ competes in the finals this weekend

A couple of weeks ago, we were invited by Red Bull to attend one of their last esports events in North America, where we got to experience the Red Bull Tetris National Final. The team brought us out to Fort Lauderdale to watch the event live at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, as the best of the best who competed in preliminaries online through the special online title met in a 32-player tournament to crown a winner who would go one to represent the United States in Dubai this weekend at the World Final.

It was an interesting choice of venue that actually paid off pretty well in person. Red Bull took over the pool area of the hotel for the event, putting the stage on the water as other players and attendees looked on at poolside. Made for some lovely visuals in person, and by the looks of the Twitch stream, it paid off well on broadcast. The event was hosted by Kevin Langue, who did an awesome job playing emcee to the proceedings throughout the day, while the Top 8 had commentary from both Lestyn "BirbWizard" Brooks and Mykal "Sharky" Buster, both of whom were also on the water with a Red Bull fridge nearby for all of the action.

Throughout the day, the bulk of the competition took place in small cabanas that lined the poolside area, where competitors faced off against each other with technicians and judges nearby in case of any issues. Over the course of the day, the competition slowly eliminated participants one by one, featuring a brother and sister who both qualified, as well as a team of three siblings who were all competing to outdo each other. As opposed to previous competitions, this was all done as 1v1 PC-based battles, with their own custom version of the classic puzzle game that added new twists to the game to make it interesting and competitive while still retaining the original game's mechanics.

When the Red Bull Tetris event got to the final eight, they moved the competition poolside, where a crowd made up of competitors who had been eliminated, as well as a live audience who came to see the competition, watched on as the best of the best duked it out in what we can only describe as high-intensity Tetris action. It's the kind of high-speed neckbreak esports action you see from a lot of Tetris-based competitions, but because the customized version is so unique to the format, it made for closer calls as players were racing to see who could amass the highest score in three minutes.

While all this was happening, Red Bull had some fun activations and items that added for enjoyment. One of which was this giant-sized version of the game with two controllers, as you (and usually a teammate) worked the controls to have your own competition with another player or team. These were awesome, but also too massive for someone to control properly, which made it even more fun to watch people scramble to put Tetrominos into place.

There were also small ones at select tables around the pool where you and another player dropped blocks down like it was Connect 4, with the first player breaking the top of the plastic panel being the loser. There was also a bar that had Red Bull Tetris-themed cocktails going on, with multiple flavors available for you to drink up. Even non-alcoholic versions for people to get in on the festivities.

At the end of the evening, it came down to two competitors: Mok Shik Thaddaeus "Coldless" Fam  battling against Christian "Sodium" Huynh in a best-of-five matchup. Both had some close calls leading up to the finals, as they faced fierce competition on both ends of the bracket, with Sodium being the fan favorite of the evening. Not sure how well it came across at home, but the crowd was definitely rooting for Sodium once he broke into the Top 4. In a nail-biter at the very end, however, it was Coldless who snatched the victory and picked up the championship.

Once he won, some of his friends and fellow teammates came on stage to dunk the man into the pool. It was a fun moment to take the edge off what felt like watching two Tetris titans go at it. The title was flown in via a drone inside a special Red Bull Tetris box, as if falling into place like a Tetromino making its way down to the bottom of the screen. A well-earned victory for Coldless, who we really hope didn't have his phone on him when he hit the water.

Overall, the Red Bull Tetris National Final was a hell of a show. We had some fun cameos from other esports pros, some good food and drinks, and an overall spirit of the game that felt friendlier than other tournaments we had attended in the past. The team behind this knocked it out of the park, and if it returns next year, it has the potential to be significantly bigger than it is now. Now that it's over, Coldless joins the other national winners from over 60 countries in Dubai to fight for the Red Bull Tetris World Final, with the final game happening on December 13, which will be displayed live in the sky. How, you may ask? They will be using over 2,000 synchronized drones running at night in the sky for what they're calling a "captivating gaming spectacle."

You can catch it tonight (since it's technically already the 13th in Dubai,) starting at 7pm PT. More information can be found on the event's website.

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