June 1, 2007

There Is A Rock Paper Scissors World Championship

Duncan Riley

32 comments »

rps2.pngThe 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.

rps1.png

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Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. Mediator Tech » When All Else Fails, There’s Rock, Paper, Scissors
  2. There Is A Rock Paper Scissors World Championship « Hot WWW News

Comments

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  1. Mike

    Wow, now I have really seen everything. Surely this is all about luck ??

    Check this out :

    http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/2032

  2. Joe

    Rock, paper, scissors…are you kidding?

  3. Josh Buckley

    wtf?! Are the contestants called “athletes”?

  4. Ali

    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!

  5. Jessup

    Is TC losing focus or have I been drinking too much sake?

  6. Yam

    Is it the 1st of April today?

  7. John

    Always read everywhere that Techcrunch writes about the upcoming 2.0 sites. What the hell is this article for?

  8. RPS Player

    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)

  9. Jef Hallestone

    Ha! Love the site. Nice fun diversion from your regular coverage

  10. G

    rock

  11. P

    paper. ha!

  12. E-man

    I would like to see the 70’s Show version: cockroach, foot, nuclear war.

  13. patricia

    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.

  14. centralia:live

    Thanks for making Friday alittle better. Making it my goal to play RPS with everyone I meet today.
    ROCK all the way!

  15. Pedro Beltrao

    Rock paper scissors world championship makes it to techcrunch … is this an attempt to diversify ?

  16. John

    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.

  17. Judd

    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…

  18. Rob

    I like Kramer’s version:

    “Rock beats paper! Rock goes THROUGH paper!!”

    Rock on….

  19. Douglas Walker

    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…

  20. Fashion Industry

    This is not techcrunch worthy!!!

  21. extensions forklift

    Im just happy to see TC - follownig its roots /

    - and some serious coverage is alwasy nice

    Sarcasim, RB

  22. Travis

    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.

  23. Matthew C

    Umm….TC is a blog. The title was quite clear. If it doesn’t interest you, don’t read it.

  24. jackmayhofferr

    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

  25. Mark Madsen

    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.

  26. Arlen Ritchie

    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.

  27. David Mackey

    One of the developers who works with me plays RPS. I only play the Moola version. Did you ever write a review of Moola?

  28. Tim Grahl

    Is this one of those posts that someone cried on the phone to get you to post about?

  29. Tanaka

    There is also a paper airplane competition:

    http://www.redbull.com/en/Arti.....1324208695

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