Michael Artiaga


Michael Khanh Artiaga, known online as dogplayingtetris or simply Dog, is an American Tetris player from Texas. He is best known for back-to-back victories in the 2020 and 2021 Classic Tetris World Championship, the former of which constituted the Guinness World Record for the "Youngest Tetris World Champion" at 13 years old.
From a young age, Michael and his brother Andrew Artiaga experimented in coding, computing, and gaming, alongside their father, a web developer. Practicing classic NES Tetris occasionally on their Game Boy, both brothers were inspired to pursue the game further after seeing 16-year-old Joseph Saelee's victory against the 37-year-old reigning champion Jonas Neubauer in the 2018 CTWC, marking the beginning of a new generation of Tetris players to the competitive scene. After his victories in the 2020 and 2021 CTWC, Artiaga continued to compete in Tetris tournaments, and additionally founded his own tournament series titled "Classic Tetris Brawl".
On October 6, 2024, playing on a modified version of the game, Artiaga became the first player to achieve a "rebirth" of NES Tetris after successfully clearing the highest level of the game, level 255, triggering the game to restart back on level 0. In the same event, Artiaga also broke the game's high score record at 29.4 million points.

Personal life and upbringing

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 he learned basic coding, and further experimented in computing and gaming in elementary school. He and his brother practiced the skills they learned by creating characters and music for several of his father's gaming apps. In an interview with The Guardian, Michael stated his school work took precedence over his gaming, and that math was his favorite subject. Outside of Tetris, Artiaga also practiced speedrunning in other retro games including ''Super Mario Bros.''

''Tetris'' career

Artiaga was introduced to classic NES Tetris at 8 years old in elementary school, after playing it on the original Game Boy at home. He collaborated with his brother on their shortcomings while they practiced the game to better their playing. He was originally attracted to the game's need for quick-thinking, speed, and skill. 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 reigning champion Jonas Neubauer in the 2018 Classic Tetris World Championship, marking the beginning of a new generation of Tetris players playing the game.
After purchasing twin famiclones, Artiaga began to compete in tournaments under the name "dogplayingtetris" or simply "Dog", in reference to his avatar being a dog holding a Nintendo controller, while his brother took the nickname "P1xelAndy". In November 2019, Artiaga created his own Tetris tournament called "Classic Tetris Brawl", which is made up of a number of events including three-player matches, level 0 to 19 speedruns, and a quarterly "Brawl Championship". In December 2019, he became the youngest person to complete a "maxout", a point in the game where the score becomes so high it no longer registers correctly on-screen.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns in the United States, both brothers began to practice more often while also learning from their competitors on Twitch. At 13 and 15, respectively, both Michael and Andrew qualified for the 2020 CTWC; Michael scored 1 million points in six games, making him the top seed in his double-elimination playoffs group. Michael was the second-youngest competitor there and the youngest to make it to the top eight. After beating fellow competitor Jacob Huff, Michael made it to the final round with his brother Andrew, where they competed against each other at home 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, a Donner guitar, an electronic drum set, and invested in cryptocurrency. Andrew celebrated the victory with Michael, giving him a high five immediately after the match; Michael remarked that the "great about being in the top two is that we both get great trophies". At 13 years and 16 days old, Artiaga set a Guinness World Record as the "Youngest Tetris World Champion".
After his 2020 CTWC victory, Artiaga stated that while he would "always go down as a 13-year-old world champion", he was motivated to win again at the next championship. The following year, Artiaga secured a back-to-back win in the also-virtual CTWC 2021, where he beat 19-year-old Jacob Huff 3–1 to secure another $3,000 prize. His back-to-back win was in the 2023 edition of the Scholastic Book of World Records. On April 9, 2022, Artiaga set another world record for the highest-scoring game on a level 29 start with a score of 2.2 million. From June 7–9, he competed in the 2024 CTWC, where he lost to Alex Thach in the finals, having him place second in the championship.
On October 6, 2024, Artiaga became the first person to achieve a "rebirth" of the game after successfully clearing the highest level of the game, level 255, triggering the game to restart back on level 0. After achieving rebirth, he continued to play the game from level 0 to level 91, where he finally ended the game with a time of 121 minutes, a final score of 29,486,164 points, 346 levels reached, and about 3,300 lines cleared. The score of 29.4 million points beat the previous high score record set by Alex Thach by more than 12 million points. The high level reached also had Artiaga achieve the first "line count overflow" in the game, which began at level 30 after the rebirth or level 285. Artiaga, who had live-streamed the game on Twitch, celebrated by putting his hands on his head and exclaiming "Am I dreaming, bro?" and "I'm so glad that game is over". The achievement, which had only previously been possible through the use of AI scripts, was completed by using a modified version of the game which prevents the game from crashing after opportunities begin at level 155.
From June 6–8, 2025, Artiaga again competed in the Classic Tetris World Championship. He was eliminated in the round of 16 after losing 2 to 3 against Tristan Kwai : breaking his five-year streak of reaching at least semifinals.

Playing style

Early in his Tetris career, Artiaga adopted the practice of hypertapping, a playing technique which emphasizes vibrating the buttons rapidly over pressing them; a technique first popularized by Saelee in his winning 2018 CTWC tournament. His success with the technique led his brother to adopt it too, to keep pace with him 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 the competition 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 before the 2020 CTWC. Rolling involves rolling the back of the controller with all five fingers to position the game pieces more quickly. To prepare for competitions, Artiaga typically plays for about 45 minutes to warm-up.

Competitive record

This table lists notable Classic Tetris tournaments in which Artiaga competed in and their outcomes. It includes any appearances at the CTWC World Championship, CTWC DAS Jonas Cup, CTWC DAS World Cup, CTM Mega Masters, as well as high placings at related tournaments, such as reaching at least semifinals in other CTWC or CTM events. CTM results prior to 2022 only list the winner and runner-up, and information may be incomplete.
YearTournamentSizeSeedScorePlace
2020CTWC World Championship 6447–0rowspan="8"
2020CTM December MastersN/AN/AN/A-
2021CTM February MastersN/AN/AN/A-
2021CTM June Masters1614–0-
2021CTM July Masters16124–0-
2021CTWC World Championship 6417–0-
2022CTWC Texas 121†3–0-
2022CTM March Masters1694–0-
2022CTM April Mega Masters3284–1
2022CTM May Masters1622–1rowspan="2"
2022CTWC Lone Star 123†1–1-
2022CTM July Masters1653–1
2022CTWC World Championship483†3–1
2022CTM November Masters1634–0
2022CTM December Masters1612–1rowspan="2"
2023CTWC Texas 1672–1-
2023CTM February Masters1623–0
2023CTM March Masters1672–1rowspan="2"
2023CTM April Mega Masters7811†4–1-
2023CTM Lone Star 24106–0
2023CTM August Masters1653–1
2023CTWC World Championship4810†3–1rowspan="3"
2024CTWC Texas 161†1–1-
2024CTM February Masters1652–1-
2024CTM Mega Masters64253–1
2024CTM April Masters1623–1rowspan="2"
2024CTWC World Championship483†4–1-
2024CTM Lone Star 1632–1rowspan="2"
2024CTM Lone Star DAS 1642–1-
2024CTM August DAS Masters1644–0
2024CTWC DAS Jonas Cup 483†2–1
2024CTM September Masters1633–1
2024CTWC Stillwater122†1–1
2024CTWC Stillwater DAS142†3–0rowspan="2"
2024CTM November Masters 16154–0-
2025CTM January Masters323‡3–1
2025CTM January DAS Masters324‡1–1
2025CTM February Masters 321‡2–1
2025CTM February DAS Masters324‡0–1
2025CTM March Masters323‡1–1
2025CTM March DAS Masters329‡5–0rowspan="3"
2025CTM April Mega Masters641‡5–0-
2025CTM May Masters322‡4–0-
2025CTM May DAS Masters322‡0–1rowspan="4"
2025CTM June Masters3216†1–1-
2025CTM June DAS Masters3213†1–1-
2025CTWC World Championship486†1–1-
2025CTM July STM Masters 321‡4–0
2025CTM July TAP Masters326‡3–1
2025CTM August Masters322‡4–0
2025CTM August DAS Masters323‡1–1
2025CTWC DAS Jonas Cup 485†3–1rowspan="2"
2025CTM October Masters321‡2–1-
2025CTM November Masters 322‡3–1
2025CTM December Masters322‡N/A