Michael Artiaga

Michael Khanh Artiaga, known online as DogplayingTetris or simply Dog, is an American Tetris player from Texas.

Michael Khanh Artiaga was born on November 20, 2007, to Van and Randall Artiaga, and is from Fort Worth, Texas.

He and his brother Andrew Artiaga grew up around electronics, as their father was a web developer.

At 5 years old, Artiaga would learn basic coding, and further experimented in computing and gaming in elementary school.

Artiaga and his brother practiced the skills they learned by creating characters and music for several of his father's gaming apps.

Artiaga stated in an interview with The Guardian that his school work takes precedence over his gaming, and that math was his favorite subject.

Outside of Tetris, Artiaga has also practiced speedrunning other retro games including Super Mario Bros.

Artiaga was introduced to classic NES Tetris at 8 years old in elementary school, after playing it on the original Nintendo Game Boy at their house.

He was originally attracted to the game's need for quick-thinking, speed, and skill.

Practicing classic NES Tetris only occasionally before on their home Nintendo Game Boy, both brothers were inspired to pursue the game further after 16-year-old Joseph Saelee's victory against the 37-year-old and previous champion Jonas Neubauer on YouTube in the 2018 CTWC, marking the beginning of a new generation of Tetris players to the competitive scene.

Michael and Andrew, at 10 and 13 years old, respectively, began to play more intently after watching 16-year-old Joseph Saelee's victory against the 37-year-old and previous champion Jonas Neubauer on YouTube in the 2018 Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC), marking the beginning of a new generation of Tetris players to the competitive scene.

Artiaga early in his Tetris career adopted hypertapping, a playing technique popularized by Saelee which emphasizes vibrating the buttons rapidly over pressing them, who pioneered it in his winning 2018 CTWC tournament.

The brothers began to practice more in the summer of 2019, using separate Nintendo consoles at their home while collaborating on their shortcomings to better their playing.

After purchasing twin famiclones, Michael began to compete in tournaments under the name "DogplayingTetris" or simply "Dog", in reference to his avatar being a dog holding a Nintendo controller, and his brother taking the nickname "P1xelAndy".

During this time in December 2019, Artiaga completed his first "maxout", a point in the game where the score becomes so high it no longer registers correctly on-screen, becoming the youngest person to do so.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns in the United States, both brothers began to practice more often while also learning from their competitors on Twitch.

He further used the attention he gained from the championship win to sell merchandise and publicize his own tournament called "Classic Tetris Brawl" (CTB), which he had created in November 2019.

The CTB is made up of a number of events including three-player matches, level 0 to 19 speedruns, and a quarterly "Brawl Championship".

He is best known for back-to-back victories in the 2020 and 2021 Classic Tetris World Championships (CTWC), the former of which Artiaga would become the Guinness World Record holder for the "Youngest Tetris World Champion" at only 13 years old.

From a young age, Michael and his brother Andrew Artiaga experimented in coding, computing, and gaming, with their father being a web developer.

After his victories in the 2020 and 2021 CTWCs, Artiaga has continued to compete in Tetris tournaments, and has started his own titled "Classic Tetris Brawl" (CTB).

At 13 and 15 years old, respectively, both Michael and Andrew qualified for the 2020 CTWC, with Michael scoring 1 million points in six games, making him the top seed in his double-elimination playoffs group.

Michael would be the second youngest competitor there, and the youngest to make it to the top eight.

After beating fellow competitor Jacob Huff (known online as "Huffulufugus"), Michael made it to the final round with his brother Andrew, where they competed against each other at their same house due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Michael won shortly after reaching level 29, winning $3,000 which he used to buy a real Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), a Donner guitar, an electric drum set, and invest in cryptocurrency.

Andrew celebrated the victory with Michael, giving him a high five immediately after the match; Michael remarked that the "great [thing] about being in the top two is that we both get great trophies."

At 13 years and 16 days old at the time he won, Artiaga earned a Guinness World Record for becoming the "Youngest Tetris World Champion".

After winning the 2020 CTWC, Artiaga remarked that the win would change his life for the better with support from all over the world motivating him.

The continued playing helped him secure a back-to-back win in the also virtual CTWC in 2021, after beating 19-year-old Jacob Huff 3 to 1, winning another $3,000.

His back-to-back win would also place Artiaga in the 2023 edition of the Scholastic Book of World Records.

On April 9, 2022, Artiaga uploaded a video to YouTube of him setting another world record for the highest scoring game on a level 29 start after reaching 2.2 million.

In July 2022, Artiaga achieved the third highest scoring game on a level 18 start (the competitive standard) after reaching 2.9 million points.

His success using the technique led to his brother to adopt the technique to even the playing field before the 2020 CTWC.

Unlike the majority of his competitors, Artiaga continued to utilize hypertapping as late as during the 2021 CTWC, his handling of the controller in which was referred to by The New York Times as one "with the breeziness of a cocktail pianist".

This was opposed to rolling, a new technique created by fellow Tetris player Christopher Martinez (known online as "Cheez") before the 2020 CTWC, which involves rolling the back of the controller with all five fingers to faster position the game pieces.

Artiaga eventually adopted the rolling technique sometime before achieving the third highest scoring game on a level 18 start in July 2022.

To prepare for competitions, Artiaga has commented he typically plays for about 45 minutes to warm-up, alongside drinking lots of water and enjoying the outside.

Below is a table of the Tetris tournaments Artiaga participated in and their outcome.

It should be noted the table is likely incomplete, as results on the CTM website prior to February 2022 only list the name of a competitor if they won or were the runner-up, not including the names of those who competed otherwise.