The depth of Tetris 99's mechanics do the impossible, improve a perfect game

When Tetris 99 was announced this past week during the Nintendo Direct, it was the first time I'm sure anyone, outside of the developers and Nintendo, had thought to combine the battle royale genre with what is arguably the greatest game of all time. Now, only a few days later I can't believe how well it works. I've long contended that Tetris is one of the only perfect games out there, because outside of introducing holds, how has the base formula changed in its 35 years of life? That's the mark of something great.

I guess I should amend my stance by saying that specifically single player Tetris was perfect, because I now see that even the great multiplayer mode in Tetris DS could be improved upon. With Tetris 99, I think we're dealing with the ultimate multiplayer format for the game.

Because the game did not launch with a manual, the mechanics outside of the usual controls were left up to the community at large to figure out. Quickly after the launch, a thread on Reddit began to break these mechanics down and from it some strategies began to form.