A brief History of CTEC

CTEC has searched to find the best Classic Tetris PAL player every year since 2015. 

Early in the process we agreed with our friends at CTWC that both tournaments should have a similar appearance, the same set of rules and use the same aesthetics. This was also seen as the CTWC logo changed in 2016 with CTEC adapting the same again. Terry, Adam and Vince from CTWC visited CTEC and Emi & Chriss went to the states and visited CTWC. 

With the help of the community from all over Europe, CTEC has been arranged every year ever since. Players and team members have been traveling to Denmark to experience and contribute to what can be seen as a tribute to the game, its players & supporters. Many countries participate and many nationalities show their skills & friendship knowing they are forever connected via PAL.

With inspiration from Portland Retro Expo & CTWC we celebrated CTEC by adding a Retro Expo to the event in 2018 and 2019  more guests would turn up and be invited to a Tetris party of a lifetime. 

2019 finally made it possible for CTEC to provide the classic Tetris community with an address that would house future tournaments in years to come. As agreed early on with CTWC we would call Copenhagen “The European Capital City of Tetris” which would be more visible now than ever.

2020 Covid-19 hit. And with a setup planned and a venue that would help arranging CTEC and a Retro Expo, the pandemic grew bigger and the date moved closer. Weeks before the official CTEC date it was clear that Denmark allowed others to travel but some countries would remain in lock-down. CTEC is community driven and its open cup format allows everyone to join in. The tough decision of canceling the event due to health riscs and unfair terms was in itself canceled by the online community. Within weeks CTP and the Discord community had established an online version of CTEC that is a chapter in the CTEC history we are proud to share. The pandemic went on another year and online community made sure that CTEC would continue and celebrate yet another winner. During the online years we interviewed Jonas, felt an international connection and found new players in new locations. 

2022 was in a covid limbo but with CTECs established location we were able arrange a tournament even though the Museum was under construction and would not be available to the public before 2023. Rebooting the event on location also left little acknowledgement to how the event was now both an online and offline entity where both players, followers, team members should expect an all-around combined event with talented participants doing theirs. Needless to say, the reboot demanded more of the event than ever before while trying to get back on its feet from years of black screens and guidelines of pandemics regarding larger groups of people. 

Expectations had changed and CTEC had to do the same. 

At the end of 2022 it was made public that CTEC has changed the structure of the organization by inviting the online community to be a permanent part of CTEC going forward. When planning and optimizing the yearly event in Denmark the team meets once a month on Discord. The individual teams present their recent work and decisions to work individually and together with both “ad hoc” and permanent CTEC sections. One team focuses on the NES while another team is working with the Game Boy tournaments. Other teams work with solutions for streaming and the practical challenges connected to the equipment and setup on location. This way of working has opened up CTEC to make it more attainable for talented members to work on important tasks. It improves the communication between CTEC and the community greatly and includes recent events with new possibilities to be adapted and executed. CTEC now consists of members who have been either playing or organizing CTEC from the beginning and/or members who have joined the community over the years. 

Learn more about:
The CTEC team – classictetris.eu/team
The community – Our Discord server
CTWC – TheCTWC.com