- The first winner of the Red Bull Tetris tournament has been revealed
- The event saw 2,800 drones create a light-based Tetris board in the sky
- Turkey’s Fehmi Atalar took home the trophy in this year’s contest
Think you’re good at Tetris? How about if you had to play it on an enormous scale using 2,800 drones illuminated with RGB lights? That’s a whole different ball game, yet that’s exactly what the inaugural Red Bull Tetris tournament was all about, and the winner has just been revealed at the event in Dubai.
The occasion took place at the Dubai Frame monument and featured a huge array of flying drones that were lit up to represent a gigantic Tetris screen (see the video below). These drones displayed players’ pieces moving in real time, enabling them to play as if they were standing at an old-school arcade machine – albeit on a much grander scale.
All in all, more than seven million qualifying games were played around the world, with national finals in 60 countries leading to a full day of knockout games before the grand final in Dubai. The winner of the inaugural competition was Turkey’s Fehmi Atalar, who saw off a challenge from Peruvian Leo Solórzano to lift the trophy.
Initially, the two competitors faced each other in a game to see who would go first in the final match. That face-off was won by Atalar, who elected to go second in the grand final. Each player had five minutes to rack up as many points as possible, with Atalar’s score of 168,566 reaching almost three times the 57,164 of his final opponent.
‘One of a kind’
Speaking after the game, Atalar said: “I said after the semi-finals that if I win, it will be a huge achievement for my country and myself. So it is really insane to win today, it feels surreal.” He then continued: “Over [my] five years of Tetris experience, this was the best moment, and this event was one of a kind. It’s not a thing you can describe in words.”
The creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, also said he was thrilled to see his game taken to new heights (quite literally). At the event he told the Metro: “One of my biggest dreams has been to see it played with drones, so I’m thrilled to see that dream come to life.”
Aside from the Tetris itself, the tournament weekend featured BASE jumping from the top of the Dubai Frame, as well as a musical rendition of the Tetris soundtrack performed by artist El Waili and the Firdaus Orchestra.
It’s not the first time that drones have been used to create spectacular visual displays in the sky. In May 2025, Vietnam hosted a light show powered by 10,518 drones, a record that was smashed months later in November as nearly 16,000 drones took part in a choreographed event in China.
With drone displays gaining in popularity and now entering the realm of gaming, don’t be surprised to see further events that take the technology in new and unexpected directions.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
