Jonas Neubauer

Tetris career Background Neubauer began playing Tetris at age 6 or 7 on his uncle's Compact Macintosh computer. As the first video game he played, he recounts seeing it as "the most awesome thing", and he dedicated "this entire side of [his] brain" to it. and was able to score 176,000 points. During this time, he competed with Nintendo World Championships runner-up Rich Ambler for high scores.

Neubauer first claimed to have attained a maxout score of 999,999 points on March 23, 2001. In around 2002, Neubauer recorded a maxout game and posted it online,

Ecstasy of Order (2010)

Neubauer was contacted in 2010 by filmmaker Adam Cornelius, who had seen the recorded maxout-scoring game that Neubauer shared online years earlier. Cornelius invited Neubauer to participate in his documentary film Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters, which was set to include a tournament in Neubauer's hometown of Los Angeles. Among his opponents, he was particularly concerned about Harry Hong and Trey Harrison, who had both posted recordings of very high-scoring games. Despite this, Neubauer was confident he would win. In 2012, Neubauer successfully defended his title for the second time after defeating Mike Winzineck 3–0 in the finals. In 2013, Neubauer was once again able to defend his title for the third time, defeating rival Harry Hong 3–2 after being down 0–2. This marked the first time Neubauer lost a round in the finals and made him a 4-time Classic World Tetris champion and the sole champion of the competition up until this point.

Neubauer participated again in 2014, looking to defend his title for the fifth straight time. Neubauer made it to the finals, setting up a rematch with the previous year's finalist Harry Hong. Despite taking an early 1–0 lead, Neubauer was defeated 3–1 by Hong. This marked the first time Neubauer was defeated in competition, and it was Harry Hong's only Classic Tetris World Championship victory. After the tournament, Neubauer contemplated retirement but was convinced to keep competing by his wife.

In 2015, Neubauer returned to the competition motivated to claim his fifth title. He was once again able to reach the finals, where he defeated surprise finalist Sean "Quaid" Ritchie 3–1, successfully reclaiming the title after the previous year's defeat. Neubauer won his sixth title in 2016 after defeating first-time finalist Jeff Moore 3–1, in what was once considered as the most popular Classic World Tetris Championship match in the competition's history, sparking renewed interest in the game and the competition. In 2017, Neubauer won his seventh title after defeating former finalist Alex Kerr 3–0 in the finals. Neubauer dropped only one game during the entirety of the competition during the quarterfinals against veteran Chad Muse. This was Neubauer's final title in the competition.

Final competition years (2018–20)

Before the 2018 tournament, Neubauer expected increased competition due to the rise of the "hypertapping" style, naming Koji "Koryan" Nishio as the favorite to win the title. After qualifying as the third seed, Neubauer slowly made his way to the semifinals, where he set up a thriller match against first-time competitor Tomohiro "GreenTea" Tatejima. Neubauer was able to defeat Tatejima 2–1 in a close battle to reach the finals for the final time, having done so nine consecutive times in tournaments up to this one. There, he was swept 3–0 by hypertapper Joseph "JdMfX_" Saelee despite setting competition personal bests. During his post-match interview, when asked if he was again contemplating retirement, Neubauer reaffirmed that he planned to keep competing indefinitely regardless of whether he was the favorite to win or not.

In 2020, the Classic Tetris World Championship was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now playing under the Spanish flag as an in-joke in which he was referred to as a man from Albacete, Neubauer qualified as the 31st seed after struggling during qualifying, only managing one max-out. Although expectations were low for DAS players like Neubauer after the domination of hypertapping in past competitions, he was able to make it to the top 16 before being defeated 3–1 by eventual semifinalist Jacob "Huffulufugus" Huff. During his post-match interview, a visibly emotional Neubauer expressed his gratitude and excitement for the ever-rising popularity of the tournament. This was Neubauer's final competition.

World record holder In June 2018, Neubauer set a (then) high-score world record of 1,245,200 points.

Competitive record This table lists Neubauer's appearances at the CTWC World Championship and their outcomes.

Event host CTWC Classic Tetris World Championship held in-person

Default wins† single-dagger symbol high seed after qualifying round, awarding a single bye

Other ventures On June 9, 2019, Neubauer was a panelist on ABC's To Tell the Truth, where he was one of three who had to fool celebrities into thinking that he was the Lego Master Builder. After the real Lego Master Builder was revealed, the celebrities then had to figure out which of the two remaining panelists was a performer who walks barefoot on Lego bricks (a "Lego walker"). The celebrities competing during that episode were Oliver Hudson, Justin Long, Snoop Dogg, and Amanda Seales.

Death and legacy

Neubauer died from a sudden medical emergency on January 5, 2021, at age 39. He had collapsed and never regained consciousness. His death was announced four days later on all of his social media pages. On April 2, 2021, the cause of death was diagnosed as "sudden cardiac death from cardiac arrhythmia of undetermined [cause]".

After Neubauer's death, the Classic Tetris World Championship trophy was renamed the Jonas Neubauer Memorial Trophy, and it was redesigned as a golden J-tetromino (representing "J" for "Jonas"). A quote from a 2018 interview of Jonas is engraved on the trophy: "If you're a high visibility player, it's on you to move the community in a positive direction".

In 2024, the Classic Tetris World Championship was relocated from Portland, Oregon, to Pasadena, California. Portland Retro Gaming Expo, an annual event which had previously hosted the championship from 2012 to 2023, instead inaugurated a Classic Tetris tournament on 28 September, 2024, dubbed "The Jonas Neubauer Cup" in his memory. In contrast to the CTWC's ruleset, the Cup is considered North America's premier DAS tournament, as Jonas was Tetris's most successful DAS player. The tournament was held a second time at PRGE in 2025.