Koji Nishio

Koji Nishio, known online as Koryan, is a Japanese classic NES Tetris player. He is best known for his competitive play in the Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC), holding the high score world record, and his contributions to the community as a player using the hyper-tapping technique. He was considered to be the greatest Japanese NES Tetris player and was generally considered to be one of the most skilled players during the peak of his Tetris career. He is also known for his competitive action in the online tournaments, winning 11 monthly tournaments and is tied for the record of consecutive monthly tournament titles at 3 with Alex Thach, Justin Yu, and Willis Gibson.

Tetris career Nishio posted his first recorded maxout of NES Tetris (a score over 1 million points) in 2016, solidifying himself as one of the top classic Tetris players in the world at that time. He differed from other players as he did not use the built in Delayed Auto Shift (DAS) to move the pieces across the board, but instead rapidly mashed the D-pad, a skill he mastered by playing the Gameboy version of Tetris (because the Gameboy version has a much slower version of the DAS relative to the NES). This technique is referred to by players as "hyper-tapping", and by 2017, Nishio was the first major hypertapper since Thor Aackerlund, and is cited to have pioneered this style of play.

Classic Tetris World Championship performance Nishio was able to attend the Classic Tetris World Championship from 2016 to 2020, where he performed very well. In his debut to the tournament in 2016, he lost in the semi-finals to the eventual world champion that year, Jonas Neubauer in a 0–2 sweep. In the 2017 World Championship, he would qualify as the number 1 seed, but would lose in the second round to Alex Kerr, the eventual runner up. In 2018 he was noted as the favorite to win by Neubauer, and again qualified the number 1 seed. However, he lost in the semifinals again, this time to young Tetris prodigy Joseph Saelee, who would go on to defeat Neubauer in the finals, ending his streak of championships. The next year Nishio would reach the finals for the first time, where he matched up against Joseph Saelee again. Their match went to a game 5 decider, in which Joseph prevailed, claiming back to back titles. After these two tournaments, there was a massive influx of popularity, and more new players joined the community. The 2020 and 2021 CTWC would be held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Nishio would participate in both. In 2020 tournament, due to its online nature, accommodated 64 players, double the previous year, separating them into group brackets A-H with a loser's bracket, Nishio made it to the finals of his group, but lost to the eventual champion, Michael Artiaga, also known as dogplayingtetris.

Other notable accomplishments and records Aside from the World Championship, Nishio has set multiple world records and other tournament victories. In June 2018, he set the score world record for NES Tetris with a score of 1,257,740. He would return for the 2025 edition, placing 5th, and helping commentate matches.

In November 2025, a Classic Tetris Friendlies match was made between Nishio and Saelee, who had taken a hiatus from Tetris. Saelee was able to win both matches in a sweep.

Competitive record This table lists notable Classic Tetris tournaments in which Nishio competed and their outcomes. It includes any appearances at the CTWC, as well as high placings at related tournaments, such as reaching a high level in other CTWC or CTM events. CTM results prior to 2022 list only the winner and runner-up, and information may be incomplete. 2017

32 1 1-1

N/A N/A N/A 2021

64 23 3-2 Event hostCTWCClassic Tetris World Championshipheld in-person CTMClassic Tetris Monthlyheld online