Rock, paper, scissors champicnship glory

year again. The air is crisp, baseball is over, hockey has begun, and it"s time again for the Rock Paper Scissors RPS International World Championships. More than 900 competitors and spectators crammed into the Koolhaus, located in Toronto, last weekend to watch players from around the world com- pete for the Championship trophy. Taking top honours this year was Canadian Rob Krueger of the Ontario-based "Legion of the Red Fist." In addition to the trophy, Krueger walked away with $5,000 and the gold medal.

Krueger defeated his oppo- nent in the final round by throwing down a gambit, (defined by the

Masters guide to RPS as "a series of three consecutive moves made with strategic intention") known as fistful o' dollars (rock, paper, paper).

Krueger's gambit was enough to beat runner up Marc Rigaux's avalanche series (rock, rock, rock) to capture the title.

"Marc and I kept stalemating in the final match, which created a lot of tension onstage," said Krueger in an RPS press release. "I had to block out the noise of the crowd and concentrate on reading Marc's face. When he threw two rocks in a row, I guessed he was going to complete the Avalanche gambit with a third rock, so I switched strategies at the last second."

A series of eight gamets are commonly used on the world stage, including The Crescendo (paper,

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scissors, rock) and Paper Dolls (paper, scissors, scissors).

According to the World RPS website, rock, paper, scissors began in 1842 in London, England after a law was passed declaring that agree- ments reached by using rock, paper, scissors were legally binding. But recreational players became upset by the legal aspect of the game and the club eventually broke free from the long arm of the law.

In 1918, the World RPS Club moved from London, England to Toronto, Ontario. As membership grew to over 1,000 members in 1935, they dropped their club status and adopted the name The World RPS Society.

Today, the Society is dedicat- ed to promoting RPS as a fun and safe way to resolve disputes. As the governing body of the sport, the Society provides it members with conferences, symposiums and retreats around the world to further their skills.

In conjunction with this year's world championships the Society released an excerpt from an upcoming DVD on their website. In

the teaser, world-class player Mr. C. Urbanus provides a series of tips and instructions for the aspiring player:

Tips #32, the element of sur- prise — if you expect someone to throw a rock then you"re going to throw paper and they throw scissors then you lose.

Tip #72, Sicilian Reasoning — This has a lot to do with how much they know about you and how much you know about them. So if they know you're apt to lead with rock then they're going to throw paper. So if you know that they know that you"re going to throw rock and they're going to throw paper then you can throw scissors. But then you have the other thing going where they would know that you know that they know that you know and you'll just have to play it by ear. Urbanus' advice, like the Society itself, seems too bizarre to

~ be true. But with the official head-

quarters of the World RPS Society in Toronto and a homegrown World champion, Canadian sports fans might be better off playing along.

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directed by Cynthia Dunstord Sy

UPEIL Cadre November 10 2003 page 8