When the world needs a hero, we often look to the skies for help.

But not all heroes wear capes.

Some sit behind a computer screen playing video games, and just so happen to be called ‘Blue Scuti’.

“I can’t feel my fingers,” said 13-year-old Willis Gibson, aka Blue Scuti.

It was mid-December when Willis had sat down and began playing Tetris. The game, invented in 1989 by Alexy Pajitnov and released by Nintendo, is a puzzle game where a player works to keep falling blocks from piling up and reaching the top.

The game had only been beaten once by artificial intelligence, but not by a human. Until that moment.

Willis, who had been recording his gameplay for YouTube, didn’t set out to beat the game. But, exactly 39 minutes into playing, the teen suddenly exclaims, “Oh my God, oh my God,” as the Tetris pieces were falling at record speed, and after a near miss where he almost lost.

Willis Gibson in his bedroom. Photo courtesy of Karin Cox

Then it happened – the screen froze and his score read 99999 and he had reached Level 157, essentially crashing the game since the code written didn’t allow for more gameplay past that point.

Willis says, “My hands feel tingly, I can’t feel my hands.”

Then, realizing there was no one there to share his record-breaking win, he comments, “my mom’s at work.”

Karin Cox did make it home from work and was able to see her son’s achievement. “You can see I crashed the screen,” he said before getting a high five from her on video.

Willis has played Tetris competitively for more than three years. He said the game’s “simplicity” is what drew it to him. 

“It’s easy to start off yet it’s really hard to master it,” he said.

Others agree. “It’s never been done by a human before,” said Vince Clemente, the president of the Classic Tetris World Championship.

It’s basically something that everyone thought was impossible until a couple of years ago.”

And now, the idea that a win is possible more players will aim for the goal.

“Now that it’s been done, there’s kind of a new phase or a new challenge,” said David Macdonald, a competitive Tetris player. “When we all found out this past year that, ‘Oh, the crash is possible, you could do it at this level,’ then people started racing to be the first to do it. But now there’s a whole new challenge, which is basically now, instead of going through the crash, how long can you go beyond the crash?”

Willis dedicated his Tetris defeat to his father, Adam Gibson, who died last month and was a big supporter of his son’s gaming skills. It’s one of the many reasons the teen said he won’t quit playing.

“(His dad) definitely would be proud. He’d tell anybody and everybody how good his kid was at Tetris,” Karin said.

Watch below for this teen’s amazing gaming win!

Sources: New York Times | People | NBC