Addiction

In one regard, the new year has not started well for me.  And the reason?  I have started to become addicted to Tetris on my iPhone.  It's almost like I'm recreating those heady days as a kid when I first got my Gameboy.  I mean it's not a particularly bad addiction - I would never spend any real money on it, just way too much time.  But they do these online cash prize tournaments every night that I've done now for 3 nights in a row (they don't cost anything to enter).  I haven't won anything yet - I doubt I ever will - but they are enjoyable.  And I'm generally playing the game a lot - particularly this knockout play where up to 100 people across the world compete together.  I haven't won one of these yet, but lots of top 10 finishes.   There does seem to be a lot of dodgy shenanigans going on with this game - it's highly improbable how much some of the opponents can attack you and add line after line of blocks to your game.  But there is definite satisfaction in knocking out other people.  I wouldn't call myself a great player, just a good one.  Basically there are 2 styles of play - when you're playing Tetris by yourself, ideally you play to clear 4 rows at a time and rack up the points that way.  But when you're playing knockout play, I've found the best method is to clear rows of bricks as quick as you can.  And then when opponents start attacking and adding rows of bricks to your screen, you're in a better position to quickly clear them before they start to build up.  Hardly in depth chess-type strategy I know, but it seems to work.