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Here’s how the Red Bull Tetris® World Final uplevelled gameplay with drones
No one had ever seen Tetris® played live on drones. And there was only one chance to get it right. Go behind the scenes to see how a dream became reality.
When Türkiye's Fehmi Atalar and Peru's Leo Solórzano faced off in the final match of the Red Bull Tetris® World Final in Dubai, they were making history. Not only were they playing for the first-ever championship in a global tournament that put a new, high-speed spin on Tetris, but every move they made was displayed in real time by drones soaring high above the desert cityscape.
It was the first official live playable Tetris game in the sky, moving the game from screen-based play to a live, free-standing environment in open airspace.
1 min
BTS: The challenge of using drones to create the final match
Drone expert Kris Vloemans explains the challenges of creating the first official live playable Tetris game in the sky.
When it was all over, Atalar's coronation on the World Final stage was the culmination of a yearlong effort by dedicated teams of professionals who came together to create, as drone expert Kris Vloemans describes it, "something that has never been done before."
World firsts at the World Final
01
An audacious idea with no Plan B
Drones create Tetriminos as Peru’s Leo Solórzano plays in the World Final
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
The stakes couldn't have been higher. Audiences were familiar with pre-programmed drone shows, but this would be a showdown between the two best Red Bull Tetris players in the world: spontaneous, unpredictable, no-holds-barred gaming where anything could happen.
Perhaps fittingly for a puzzle game, the components involved were numerous and complex.
Most critically, the drones would need to assemble in real time, synchronising with the players' lightning-fast moves, requiring millimetre-precision and perfect coordination among them.
"Imagine, we have over a thousand drones in the air [per player] that are all receiving their individual information, but in the sky, they all have to behave as one. And all of this is happening in a fraction of a second. In fact, 30 times per second," says Vloemans.
[The drones] all have to behave as one. And all of this is happening in a fraction of a second. In fact, 30 times per second
The setting would be stupendous: the Dubai Frame. Towering the equivalent of 50 storeys above the desert floor, the Frame is an iconic part of a city renowned for its architecture. The landmark is treasured as a cultural monument, and in the Grand Final match, the drones would create the Tetriminos within its illuminated structure. Measuring 150m high and 93m wide, it creates its own turbulence and wind pockets.
The challenge: creating a live game on drones within the Dubai Frame
© Dubai Frame
Adding to the anticipation: the expectations of a live audience watching at the Frame. Among them would be the creator of Tetris himself, Alexey Pajitnov, travelling all the way to Dubai to witness the fulfilment of his long-held dream to see Tetris played using drones, as well as Tetris legend Henk Rogers.
With all this on the line, one small slip – a missed sync, a drifting drone, a late cue – could shatter months of effort and innovation. Yet with such a unique goal, there could be no contingency. There was no Plan B.
02
A year of preparation
The audience was amazed to see the game play out on this scale
© Philip Platzer
Preparations began a full year before the National Final winners landed in Dubai. But given the number of unknowns in this unprecedented project, even that timeframe was tight.
Lumasky – a leading provider of drone light shows worldwide that has set four Guinness World Records and won multiple industry awards – took on all aspects of the drone flight. Somehow, they needed to find a way to create the shifting, rotating and falling Tetriminos in real time, just as fast as they fell and as quickly as the players moved them.
This is something that has never been done before
Vloemans explains, "You can't simply connect the Tetris game to the drones. So the team at Lumasky had to build their own version of [Red Bull] Tetris. That way, the game could come directly to the drones without any external layers in between. So they are truly playing Tetris in the sky."
Of the total 4,000 custom drones that would eventually fly in the show, 1,200 were used for the opening sequence, and 2,800 (1,400 drones per player) more were used for the Grand Final match. Each one weighed just about the same as a large apple, yet possessed astounding responsiveness and potential.
Red Bull Tetris® drone facts
Even a slight error in drone positioning for takeoff could be disastrous. As Lumasky's Danil Skopin explained, "All the drones have got to be facing north in a specific direction. It's very important, because if all the drones aren't facing the right way, they could collide."
1 min
BTS: Setting up 4,000 drones
Lumasky’s Danil Skopin reveals the process and precision of laying out 4,000 drones for the Red Bull Tetris® World Final
The drones were also equipped with high-brightness RGB 40W LEDs. "RGB" stands for red, green, and blue, and combining those colours enabled the LEDs to produce a full 16-million-colour range, visible from several kilometres in clear conditions.
03
The big test
Türkiye's Fehmi Atalar won Red Bull Tetris World Final
© Dean Treml
Still, even the best equipment in the world would mean nothing if the timing and synchronisation weren't just right.
The drone movements, colours and transitions were synchronised with the show's music through a pre-programmed timeline, creating a unified visual narrative that blended aerial choreography, rhythm and dynamic lighting effects. Synchronisation can be managed via timecode or manual cue triggering and can be aligned to seconds or frames.
Incremental testing of various components had been going on for months, but finally – on the day before the show – all the technical and performance teams assembled at the Dubai Frame for a make-or-break test: a run-through that would enable them to confirm the technology, lock in their cues and address anything they might have missed.
They are truly playing Tetris in the sky
Before creating a live playable Tetris game in the sky, the opening of the drone show would be pure entertainment, including additional drone displays, BASE jumps from the top of the Dubai Frame by Red Bull athlete Dani Román and Darren Burke of Skydive Dubai, live hosts, and performances by producer El Waili and the members of the UAE’s own Firdaus Orchestra. Everything was cued to perfection
For that opening, the team would use camera-equipped drones to thrill the audience with POV shots displayed on a massive screen, requiring pinpoint accuracy while flying at impressive speeds, even through pyrotechnics.
"If we get the time code wrong, we're really in trouble," said Ralph Hogenbirk, one of the drone pilots for the show.
1 min
BTS: How the World Final POV shots were captured
Drone pilot Ralph Hogenbirk describes what it took to shoot POV shots at the Red Bull Tetris® World Final.
04
Tetris in the sky
When it all came down to the big moment – a show featuring 4,000 drones and 10 minutes of gameplay by the two best Red Bull Tetris players in the world – the visuals say it all:
The drone display lit up the Dubai sky
© Philip Platzer/Red Bull Content Pool
The show featured live music, special guests and 4,000 drones in all
© Philip Platzer/Red Bull Content Pool
Türkiye's Fehmi Atalar plays on drones at the Red Bull Tetris® World Final
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
Up on the big screen
© Philip Platzer/Red Bull Content Pool
The moment when Atalar realises he’s won it all
© Dean Treml/Red Bull Content Pool
Find out more about Red Bull Tetris and the World Final with drones here.
