The greatest strategists from around the world will gather in Toronto October 13 for the right to become the champion of champions. The 2007 World Rock Paper Scissors (RPS) Champion!
It turns out that the 2007 International World RPS Championships are being organized by some folks in the Web 2.0 business who attended Mesh in Toronto this week. Despite the initial OMG! factor, Rock Paper Scissors is a fast growing sport complete with its own professional organization, the World RPS society and there are regular competitive tournaments held worldwide.
For those not familiar with the game, Wikipedia has an extensive explanation. The game is said to date back to the Han Dynasty in China, spreading to Japan and later Europe. Whilst a frivolous child’s game to some, Rock Paper Scissors is a serious pursuit to others. Rock Paper Scissors tournaments have been televised, there are gambits and player strategies, and there is even an official book for sale on Amazon.
Current Rock Scissors Paper World Champion Bob Cooper hails from London and this year’s world championship is in its 7th year. Over 500 competitors are expected.
Now you’ve seen everything. Move along.
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Wow, now I have really seen everything. Surely this is all about luck ??
Check this out :
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/2032
Rock, paper, scissors…are you kidding?
wtf?! Are the contestants called “athletes”?
I compete everyday with my kid, sometimes he whups my butt. It takes a lot of training and perseverance, much like blogging actually.
This is awesome!
Is TC losing focus or have I been drinking too much sake?
Is it the 1st of April today?
Always read everywhere that Techcrunch writes about the upcoming 2.0 sites. What the hell is this article for?
I compete in Philadelphia, and it is tons of fun and there is definitly strategy involved, and a chance to win some money. I suggest everyone to find their local RPS tournament and throw some rocks (my strategy which has led me to be quite successful)
Ha! Love the site. Nice fun diversion from your regular coverage
rock
paper. ha!
I would like to see the 70’s Show version: cockroach, foot, nuclear war.
that was an awesome episode and I would totally woop anyones butt in cockroach, foot, nuclear war baby. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.
vamluv3r4evz
I don’t know, for some reason that game stresses me out. We use it a lot to decide on things, like who is going to go out and get everybody lunch.
I couldn’t imagine competing in a tournament! I wonder what kind of strategy goes into it for competitors.
Thanks for making Friday alittle better. Making it my goal to play RPS with everyone I meet today.
ROCK all the way!
Rock paper scissors world championship makes it to techcrunch … is this an attempt to diversify ?
How can this still be news to people? It’s been going on for years and years now. It’s certainly not the kind of thing I expect to see covered on TechCrunch.
Although it has nothing to do with what I’m looking for at TechCrunch, I kind of like the occasional, out of the left, odd artical…
I like Kramer’s version:
“Rock beats paper! Rock goes THROUGH paper!!”
Rock on….
For those who are curious, here is two reasons that the World RPS Society is somewhat connected to Techcrunch’s usual fare.
1. The World RPS Society has never used traditional advertising - it has grown strictly by web word of mouth, viral tactics, some PR, blogs and social media sites.
2. RPS is simply the best way to avoid the high price of legal counsel in fighting intellectual property battles. Put it all on the line and RPS for it. At least a startup with no legal budget has a fighting chance…
This is not techcrunch worthy!!!
Im just happy to see TC - follownig its roots /
- and some serious coverage is alwasy nice
Sarcasim, RB
I think it’s hilarious. This guy has been selling World RPS prints on Imagekind for a while now, and does pretty well. He has a lot more in the works, I think. His poster are here.
Umm….TC is a blog. The title was quite clear. If it doesn’t interest you, don’t read it.
Mike,
Looks like TechCrunch has jumped the shark. Just change the name to Crunch and write about whatever whacky shit strikes your fancy. I am sure some one else will take your place and write about start ups.
FYI — it is called Rochambeau
Why RPS here? Because it’s used to make multi-million dollar decisions in the executive ranks. e.g.
“Takashi Hashiyama, president of Maspro Denkoh Corporation, an electronics company based outside of Nagoya, Japan, could not decide whether Christie’s or Sotheby’s should sell the company’s art collection, which is worth more than $20 million, at next week’s auctions in New York.
He did not split the collection - which includes an important Cézanne landscape, an early Picasso street scene and a rare van Gogh view from the artist’s Paris apartment - between the two houses, as sometimes happens. Nor did he decide to abandon the auction process and sell the paintings through a private dealer.
Instead, he resorted to an ancient method of decision-making that has been time-tested on playgrounds around the world: rock breaks scissors, scissors cuts paper, paper smothers rock”
from this NY TImes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04.....mp;ei=5070
If you’re bored with three choices there’s also RPS 25 and RPS 101 complete with spiffy graphic depictions.
RPS is the definitive decision making tool, at least amongst friends trying to settle matters of relative insignificance. RPS has now gone web 2.0 too. Due to its rising popularity, we felt compelled to add it to our game titles at Moola.com — where you play RPS against others for real money (your entry fee provided thanks to advertisers). Our version, “Ro Sham Bo Fu” (direct translation: Rock Paper Scissors Twist) has a skill based twist.
One of the developers who works with me plays RPS. I only play the Moola version. Did you ever write a review of Moola?
Is this one of those posts that someone cried on the phone to get you to post about?
There is also a paper airplane competition:
http://www.redbull.com/en/Arti.....1324208695
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