Aren't there are more modern versions that might make more sense for competition (tetris with friends)? Is it always going to be the old school version?
* Standard Modern (or "SRS") Tetris. The game mechanics gives a lots of option to the player: pieces can slide after falling to the ground or when rotating against a wall, the RNG is optmized to give a uniform distribution of piece, etc. Since the speed of the game comes from the player himself, most people either play in a 1vs1 format [1] or in a solo 40 lines sprint [2]. It can get very fast [3] (an actual TAS looks like this [4].
* Arika Tetris (Tetris the Grand Master). A Japananese, arcade-only variant of Tetris. Here the game mechanics offer a lot of the same options (in spirit) as the Standard Modern Tetris, but the mechanics is tweaked for solo play. Not only it enables a high speed play, but forces you to keep up (otherwise it's game over). We got some good exposure some years ago thanks to the performance of Kevin et al. during the Awesome Game Done Quick Marathon a few years ago [5]
The modern variants of Tetris are generally called "SRS Tetris" in the Tetris community (ex: Tetris with Friends", but also Tetris Ultimate, or Puyo Puyo Tetris).
Some people don't like the SRS engine however. A lot of things have been added to SRS Tetris, such as bag-randomizers, hold-button, and a slew of "twists" that help you recover from errors.
For people who want to play "original Tetris", it means you have to play the original NES version. And there is a large community of players who really prefer the original style... and not the modern direction that make up the rules of SRS Tetris variants.
As I said in another post: I personally prefer SRS Tetris. But I also give a lot of credit to the players who prefer classic rules: the classic rules are way harder to play. And in some sense: more casual people have played Tetris under classic rules. (SRS Tetris is a newer variant, and a lot of casuals think of the "Hold" button as cheating in my experience).
* NES Tetris: the subject of OP post.
* Standard Modern (or "SRS") Tetris. The game mechanics gives a lots of option to the player: pieces can slide after falling to the ground or when rotating against a wall, the RNG is optmized to give a uniform distribution of piece, etc. Since the speed of the game comes from the player himself, most people either play in a 1vs1 format [1] or in a solo 40 lines sprint [2]. It can get very fast [3] (an actual TAS looks like this [4].
* Arika Tetris (Tetris the Grand Master). A Japananese, arcade-only variant of Tetris. Here the game mechanics offer a lot of the same options (in spirit) as the Standard Modern Tetris, but the mechanics is tweaked for solo play. Not only it enables a high speed play, but forces you to keep up (otherwise it's game over). We got some good exposure some years ago thanks to the performance of Kevin et al. during the Awesome Game Done Quick Marathon a few years ago [5]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhnFztv79N8
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llMQxWfI-Mg
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyVh40sOav0
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqr69JJFa88
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwDUiCzPVU